Albus Potter and the Lost Heir
by Brynden J. Vaden
Summary: When Albus Potter goes to Hogwarts, he's in for one strange first year. Starting with befriending Scorpius Malfoy, his year quickly becomes unorthodox. He and Scorpius are soon dealing with classes, Quidditch tryouts, bullies, and Collin Elkins - an arrogant Slytherin that Albus is made to keep an eye on. But is there a secret behind Collin? Are the houses really what they seem?
1. Ch 1: An Unlikely Friendship

As the Hogwarts Express pulled away from Platform 9¾, Albus Potter sighed. With his ferret - Merlin - tucked away with the other pets, he felt very alone, even with his cousins and brother around him. He saw their cousin Fred enter the compartment with a wicked smile on his face, followed by towheaded Blaine Dixon, a friend of James'. That was all it took for Albus to decide to flee the compartment, not wanting to be the butt of his brother's jokes on his first day to Hogwarts. He half-expected Rose to go with him, but noticed his cousin Dominique was waving her over. Rose looked at Albus for a moment, almost guiltily.

"No, go ahead." Albus said, feeling hollow. "I'm going to go meet someone." He turned and fled down the corridor, feeling very lonely. He didn't know very many people on the train. His cousin Louis was almost eleven and should have been here with him, but Louis was born two days after September 1 and was therefore not old enough to go yet. Louis had been envious and resentful and had stayed home with his mother at Shell Cottage, refusing to see his sisters or cousins off out of pure disappointment. Albus was dismayed by this. He was thin and brown-haired and didn't necessarily look like his cousin Louis - who was slightly taller and golden-haired - but even without resembling Louis, Albus would have appreciated the boy's company.

It seemed there were children in every compartment, but he finally found that one of the very last two was empty and entered it, standing to watch the cityscape of London roll out the window. He sat down in the plush scarlet seat and fixed his blue eyes outside of the compartment, seeing Muggles going about their daily lives, unaware that Albus' life was really starting up now. It reminded Albus of his uncle Dudley and cousins Jordan and Jeanette, who were both as plain Muggle children as one could find. _They weren't bad_, Albus thought, _just a bit boring._ There wasn't much appeal in them because they were forbidden from magic around their cousins and were so different from Albus and the children he knew. Albus had learned the hard way when he discovered that neither of his Muggle cousins owned one Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but had plenty of rugby cards and video games and skipping-rope - Muggle things like that. He had gotten a skipping-rope from Jeanette one year and regifted it to Granddad Weasley, who loved all things Muggle-made. The man had taken a fond interest to the idea of skipping rope and found it such a funny Muggle activity.

Albus pulled out his deck of Famous Witch and Wizard cards and began sorting through them and rereading them. It wasn't that he didn't know about the men, women, and creatures on the cards...but rather that he was bored. Besides, if another came along and saw him with his cards, they might be inclined to pull out their cards too and start talking to Albus. So Albus made a big window show of going through his cards and wasn't surprised when he heard the door of his compartment slide open.

It wasn't just any other first year that caught him alone, but the pale and sharp-faced boy with slicked back white-blond hair. The same one whose father had regarded Albus' on the platform. He was wearing all black and peered into the compartment the moment he opened the door, looking nervous. Albus had gotten the idea that there was some tension between his family and the family of this boy, but didn't see why. The boy looked perfectly nice, perhaps a bit nervous, even.

"Mind if I sit here?" the boy asked in a drawl of a voice. "Everywhere else is full...and I couldn't help but notice that impressive-looking bundle of cards you've got there." Albus grinned at the nervous boy, who smirked back. Whatever tension existed between their fathers was not going to carry over. Albus patted the seat in front of him and the other boy smirked before entering the compartment and sitting down. He took off his black jacket, revealing a black t-shirt.

"I'm Albus Potter, by the way." Albus spoke up, extending a hand for a kindly handshake. The other boy looked somewhat amused as he took Albus' hand and shook it firmly and solidly . He pulled out his own deck of cards, which Albus gawked at. It was even bigger than his own pile and all the cards looked fairly crisp and well-tended to. Albus then felt very self-conscious of his own deck, which was in an _alright_ state, though some of the cards (those that Albus had gotten from James) had the look of typical wear and tear.

"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy." the boy exchanged in an offhand but friendly manner. "That's not too bad a deck you have there. I'll bet the worse-looking ones of the bunch were your brother's cards, am I right? I saw him with you on the platform." Albus found himself peering curiously at the boy, who sifted through his own card pile with an amused expression on his pointed face.

"How'dyou know?" Albus asked as he watched the boy shuffling through his deck while he maintained and sifted through his own set. They were passing through the outskirts of London now and were heading out towards the lush English countryside. Scorpius stopped to peer pensively out the window before he turned to Albus with a sure smirk on his face.

"He's Gryffindor, right?" Scorpius quizzed, smiling when Albus nodded. "That's why. Gryffindors are so busy with their heroics that they're bound to neglect their deck. The messiest decks I've ever seen were all Gryffindor decks, you know. Of course, I've seen a fair few Hufflepuffs that couldn't be arsed to keep a clean deck either."

"So...what house are you going to want in?" Albus asked nervously, but also a bit curious as to what the boy thought of the Hogwarts houses. Scorpius seemed to have scowled a bit with disgust when mentioning Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

"Slytherin, of course." Scorpius replied contentedly, flipping the card in his hand. The gaunt face of Salazar Slytherin peered back at Albus. "All of my family's been Slytherin for centuries. But that's not why I want to be one. It's just the best house of the four. Slytherins are brave without recklesness, intelligent without being aloof, and loyal without being soppy about it. What about you?"

"Gryffindor." Albus admitted, feeling somewhat embarrassed as he did so. "Both my Potter and Weasley sides have all been Gryffindors. It's...erm…" Albus fiddled with the card of Andros the Invincible and frowned. Scorpius would surely think him to be a git if he said that was the only reason _why_ he wanted to be in Gryffindor.

"That can't be it. Why do you want to be in Gryffindor?" Scorpius pressed, looking puzzled. "Why would you want to be in Gryffindor because all your family is? Why not be the different one?"

"Well Ravenclaw doesn't sound too bad...Aunt Hermione was nearly one." Albus squeaked timidly.

"No." Scorpius said boldly. "You've got to be a Slytherin, Potter. If I'm going to Slytherin, I want you to be in it as well. You're not like that lot in Gryffindor, you know. I can see from how you're talking. You've got self-preservation. That's a Slytherin trait."

"My brother keeps taunting me about Slytherin...but I'm actually a bit afraid of ending up there." Albus replied in a low voice. "He makes it sound like being Slytherin's awful, and I don't want to be the only one in the family that ends up there, you know."

"So?" Scorpius retorted fiercely. "Your brother is a Gryffindor, so _of course_ he's going to have a biased opinion against Slytherin. That's just the way these things go. It's house rivalry to the core. But let me tell you Albus, Slytherin is a _fine_ house to be in."

"James said there were dark wizards in Slytherin…" Albus weakly argued.

"So there's no dark wizards in _any_ of the other houses, you think?" Scorpius asked, his tone somewhat indignant, likely offended by the statements against Slytherins. "If all Slytherins were bad, then it'd be a matter of taking everyone who was sorted Slytherin and chucking them out of the school, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose." Albus replied. Scorpius' point made a fair lot of sense. It wasn't that Albus was biased, but he had just been so flustered from James' taunting over the ordeal that it had clouded his better sense of judgement. It wasn't like he thought that he would earn the ire of his parents by being made a Slytherin, but he knew he'd have a world of taunting of some kind from James to endure in the future, something he definitely _wasn't _seeking out.

"Hello there. Scorpius Malfoy, right?" a voice asked from the door of the compartment. A boy with pale skin, thick brown hair, and a very slightly upturned nose was peering at them with sharp eyes, followed by a smaller boy with somewhat thick hair that was dark brown or black. The first boy wore a Montrose Magpies sweater and black jeans, looking pleased with himself. The smaller was in a plain navy blue jumper and casual slacks. The boy sat right beside Scorpius, with the smaller one choosing a spot beside Albus. The first boy stuck out his hand.

"Thomas J. Harries, son of Peter Harries, who works with the Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt." said the first boy somewhat arrogantly. "But you can call me Tom. You're a Potter, are you not? What a good lot, then. Father told me I'd have to acquaint myself with the Malfoy heir, but to think that I'd get to have a Potter for company…"

Albus felt with a pang that he had already found another Slytherin.

"Yes, I'm Albus." Albus replied back nervously, shaking Tom's hand before turning to the smaller boy beside him. The boy was already deeply buried in his copy of _Hogwarts, A History_, strongly reminding Albus of Rose. The boy noticed Albus peering at him and extended a pale hand, reluctantly holding his book to the side.

"Branegan Oster-Shanks, call me Bran." the boy said, looking a bit timid. Albus shook the bookish boy's hand and noticed despite his reluctance to socialize, he had a firm handshake as well. "The name means 'raven' and I'm surely a Ravenclaw, but ironically Ravenclaw's animal _isn't_ a raven."

"What?" Albus, Scorpius, and Tom asked all at once. Bran's eyes narrowed in an amusing way over his book.

"Haven't any of you read _Hogwarts, A History_?" Bran asked, finally dog-earing his book and placing it in his lap. "Rowena Ravenclaw didn't select a raven as the sigil animal of Ravenclaw house, but an eagle. I find that odd...ravens are unusually smart birds and would make for an excellent representation of the house, after all, but perhaps she was fond of eagles."

"Do _you_ have a raven?" Scorpius asked, wide-eyed and amazed.

"Not I." Bran replied back airily. "Though I'd rather like one. There was one boy on the platform with a raven, but I never caught his name. I suppose he _was_ small though, so he's likely a first year too. There's all kinds of special animals this year, did you notice? After all, we're starting on a rare transfer year."

"Transfer year?" Albus asked, blinking in confusion. "What's that mean?"

"Basically," Bran started up, proud of his knowledge. "The school officials have declared a transfer year with several other wizarding schools around the world. While eight British first-years will be accepting scholarships at wizarding schools across the globe - one from each of the major institutions - one of their students will be coming here in place of a British student."

"So we could end up with eight extra Slytherins?" Tom asked then, peering curiously and somewhat eagerly at Bran, who shook his head.

"No. While many foreign children wanted to come to Hogwarts, they were selected carefully so the student roll for every house would be the same. They picked one boy and one girl from the schools with a house trait each and gave them an early sorting to make sure. So there will be two kids fit for Slytherin, two for Hufflepuff, and so on."

"Wow." Albus gasped. The idea of foreign exchange students sounded highly appealing to him. He would get to meet wizards from abroad, which would be pretty interesting in essence, as he had never met foreign wizards before. He wondered what countries his two housemates would be from. "Say, do you know what schools they might be from?"

"Well…" Bran began, deep in thought. "I know there will be one from the Mahoutokoro School of Magic, that's an elite Japanese wizarding school. There will also definitely be one from the Zauberschule Academy in Brandenberg, Germany. There's also the Gryphonscale School of Magic in Oregon of the United States, that one will definitely be in the transfer program, as our headmaster is good friends with the headmaster of that school. Beauxbatons in France and Durmstrang in Norway are likely. I think there's also going to be a student from Australia, but I've no idea which school they'll be from, as they've got three…"

"Australia has _three_ wizarding schools?" Scorpius asked with a slight gape. "Bloody hell, how do they manage that many? What for?"

"You see, they have one co-ed academy and the other two are split-gender." Bran explained calmly. "They've got the boys' school near Melbourne, the girls' school somewhere in Queensland, and the co-ed school somewhere in western Australia."

"What kind of animals did the foreign students have?" Albus then asked, highly interested. In his anxiety, he hadn't noticed any students that looked particularly foreign, but now that he knew they had foreign students among their number, he couldn't help but be curious about them and what magical companions they may have brought.

"I think I saw an Asian-looking boy with what appeared to be a white-tailed eagle." Bran mused, rubbing the side of his head gently in thought. "It was a very fine-looking bird. There was also another boy with an iguana, but I couldn't tell where exactly he was from. South America is likely."

"Me, I've got a Great-Horned owl, Archimedes." Tom said loudly. "He was a gift from father when my father was on a business trip in the United States. Father's been on trips all over the world and he just knew I'd want that owl, you know. What have you lot got for pets?"

"I've got a cat, named Loki for his mischief." Scorpius drawled, smiling. "He's pedigree and all, quite an intelligent and fantastic one. He might be part Kneazle though. Father was never sure about him. But _I_ liked him, so mother and I bullied father into buying him for me."

"I've got a ferret named Merlin." Albus added in, not knowing if Merlin was a pedigree ferret or not. "He's a great little guy, the first pet I've ever had that was exclusively mine."

"I've picked a bearded dragon. Willow's her name, for the tree we found her near." Bran chirped merrily, his face buried in his book once more. "I heard there would be school owls made accessible to us, so I decided to get a pet with which I could have more of a personal bond, since pets that aren't owls have to be housed in one's dormitory. Only owls have a special place, as Hogwarts is equipped with its own Owlery."

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" asked a voice. A friendly old witch stood in the corridor with a trolley of treats. Scorpius got to his feet, waving the others down and bought out almost the entire remainder of the trolley, spilling the treats before them.

"Cheers, it's on me." Scorpius simply said with a twinkle in his eye. Perhaps it was Albus, but Scorpius looked as though he was pleased to have friends, like he hadn't been expecting to have any.

Albus seized a Chocolate Frog box at once and pried it open, hoping Goliath was in it. He jammed the chocolate frog into his mouth hungrily and munched down on the candy frog before checking the card. It was Agrippa, and he already had three Agrippas.

"Agrippa, is that?" Tom asked, peering from Albus to the Agrippa card with his sharp and guarded eyes. "I'll take that one off your hands, I'm missing him. What do you want for it?"

"Have you Goliath, Glanmore Peakes, or Vlad Drakul?" Albus asked warily. Tom scrutinized his own deck with the slightest of frowns, shuffling through the cards before pulling a Glanmore Peakes from his deck and offering it to Albus, who accepted it and handed him Agrippa. Albus grinned at his new Glanmore Peakes card and reached for a sour apple candy wand, taking a good chew off it, pausing to see what his new friends were snacking on.

Scorpius was levitating slightly in his seat, having popped a Fizzing Whizbee into his mouth eagerly. He smirked at Albus as Tom selected a jelly slug and bit into it roughly. Bran was chewing delicately on a Pumpkin Pasty, meanwhile, deep in concentration on his copy of _Hogwarts, A History_, which was heavily dog-eared and lined with sticky notes that stuck out of the book.

"What are all those notes for, Bran?" Albus asked through his chew of sour apple candy wand. Bran looked up from his book and smiled slightly.

"I'm Muggleborn, you see." Bran admitted nervously. "There isn't a lot about the wizarding world that I know. So when I've found something I don't understand or a name that isn't familiar enough to me, I make note of it with the sticky notes so I can reference it in the Hogwarts library."

"So you're doing _additional_ research?" Scorpius asked with slight dismay, drifting back into his seat. "Do _all_ Ravenclaws insist upon giving themselves extra homework or something? I don't get it."

"I _want_ to know more, thank you very much, Malfoy." Bran snapped, turning back to his book as he ripped off a chunk of the Pumpkin Pasty. Scorpius looked a bit cowed, but he turned back to Albus with a slight shrug as though to say "_What can you do?"_.

The sky outside the window of the train began to darken as they sank further and further into the rural part of the country. Rolling English fields were soon replaced by lush Scottish forestry as they headed beyond England. The four boys took it in turns to change into their robes, placing their street clothes into their trunks. They wore the house-neutral uniforms of unsorted first-years, though Albus could tell that not all uniforms were like this. He had glimpsed James and his friends while waiting for Tom and Bran to change, swaggering around in their Gryffindor robes and scoffing loudly.

The train finally slowed to a complete stop when it came to Hogsmeade station after a voice called to them to leave their luggage on the train. Albus and Scorpius shrugged to one another and followed Tom off the train and towards a lantern that bobbed suspiciously high over the first years' heads.

"Firs' years, over here!" Hagrid boomed over the cacophony of chattering children that crowded the platform, packing close to new friends and reuniting with old ones. Much to Albus' delight, the half-giant pinpointed James trying to prank him and firmly took the older Potter by the scruff of his neck and sent him sprawling along after the other older students. James swore under his breath and grinned wickedly as he, Fred, and Blaine slunk into the darkness of the path reserved for older students.

"Thanks, Hagrid!" Albus squeaked. Hagrid chuckled and looked down at Albus and his new companions. Scorpius looked up at Hagrid with awe; the young Malfoy boy had never seen a giant or half-giant before and was amazed. Tom on the other hand, remained aloof and cool-headed before Hagrid. Bran looked strangely out of place without his book, but seemed thrilled anyways.

"Not a problem Albus. Yer brother's been raisin' hell ever since he started here." Hagrid said. "I'm about ter write a letter to yer mum about him. Anyhow, follow me, first years!"

They followed Hagrid down a dark path, noticing all the students that were second year and up were heading down a separate path that forked far away from theirs. Some of the first years waved to older brothers, sisters, and cousins before following Hagrid down a very dark path. Albus was right on Hagrid's heels and felt Scorpius packed close on one side of him with Tom on the other. They stumbled through the darkness after him, following only Hagrid's bobbing light as it shone like a beacon.

"Yeh'll get yer first sight o' Hogwarts soon enough." Hagrid boomed kindly to them as they trekked along behind him. Tom nodded, reassured, but Albus and Scorpius exchanged a look. They were both excited to the utmost to be at Hogwarts, finally. As nervous as Albus had been about the sorting, he felt a bit more confident now. Scorpius had said he was going to be in Slytherin after all, so maybe they weren't all bad…

The students all suddenly gasped, their voices hanging in the night air as they exclaimed wildly. The path they had been on had suddenly opened up to a lakeside. The lake looked as smooth and beautiful as black glass, but had several orbs of light floating around in it, reflected from the large castle that loomed over one side of the lake. It looked like it was perched on a mountain, with towers and turrets that all pointed skyward. As they scrambled down to the shore, Albus noticed there were fifteen boats here, with one being slightly larger than the others.

"No more 'n four to a boat!" Hagrid bellowed and the children scattered after a boat. Hagrid stood in front of the largest boat, watching as the children hurried into other boats. Bran apologetically left them to sit with a skinny boy with brown hair, but Rose surprised Albus by finding him and his friends. Albus claimed one of the first boats, so he and Scorpius scrambled in first, followed into their vessel by Tom and Rose. They were made to wait until all fourteen of the small boats had four children in them before Hagrid nodded.

"Righ' then, we're all ready." Hagrid said over everyone's voices. "FORWARD!"

The small boats began to move of their own accord, with Hagrid's bigger boat taking the lead. Albus peered around with bright eyes as they began crossing the lake. Chatting broke out among the incoming student body, so Rose turned to Albus at once.

"So, who are these two?" she asked, looking curiously at Scorpius and Tom.

"These are my new friends." Albus replied. "Scorpius Malfoy and Tom Harries. They're good guys, Rose."

"Pleasure to meet you, Rose." Tom said as politely as he could. "I assume by your red hair that you're a Weasley. What a mix we all are in here, no? I think I saw a Macmillan in that boat over there."

"Are families _that_ important to you?" Rose asked Tom, who nodded innocently.

"As an incoming Slytherin, I take great stock in wizarding genealogy. Don't get me muddled, I don't discriminate against the Mudblo- er...Muggleborns. It's just nice to know where everyone comes from. Of course, I myself am from an old wizarding family."

Rose flashed Albus a look and Albus suddenly felt rather awkward. His friends were a bit solidly on the Slytherin side, but was that a bad thing? He gave her a look back. Scorpius, noticing the interaction, decided to speak up.

"Have you a problem with prospective Slytherins?" Scorpius asked, a bit indignantly. "I would think Potter here's brother would, but you?"

"I have _nothing_ against Slytherins." Rose replied coolly. "Why are you so defensive about it?"

"I've got to be." Scorpius said gruffly. "Everyone acts like Slytherin's just villain after villain, even though some of us have never done anything wrong. We're a house with our strong points too, after all. Don't tell me you're one of those sort."

"Honestly, Malfoy, I've just said I wasn't." Rose snapped back. "Can't you listen at all, or do you just fancy playing the misunderstood victim?"

Scorpius opened his mouth to shoot something back, but Hagrid bellowed over them all to duck their heads as they drew up close to the castle. Scorpius instead begrudgingly turned back to face the front while an awestruck Tom barely complied. They headed under a thick curtain of ivy and were soon in an underground chamber of water. It wasn't long before they reached a dock and found themselves scrambling out of the boats.

"Follow me." Hagrid said, so they complied, heading up a flight of stairs with him. There was an old sort of grandeur about even this small part of the castle, and students couldn't help but to point out every minor thing that they looked at. Hagrid's staircase soon led them up into the cold night air, so they followed him across the sweeping lawn of Hogwarts and up to the main entrance, which was incredibly huge and made of oak.

"All here? Alrigh' then." Hagrid boomed, and he knocked on the oak door three times.


	2. Ch 2: The First Night

The oak door swung open only mere seconds after Hagrid's knock. A witch in what looked like her mid-thirties was before them. She was rather beautiful, with cherry-red lips and lush black hair that had deep purple streaks in it. She wore robes of magenta and peered at them with a somewhat critical eye. Albus fussed with his robes, trying to look more presentable as Scorpius ran a hand over his pale blond hair to pat it down.

"Thank you Hagrid." she said, beaming. Hagrid gave a funny sort of half-bow and she turned back to the students. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor Avera Lockett, deputy headmistress and head of Ravenclaw house. Follow me, please." She turned and walked into the Entrance Hall, her charges trailing behind her.

The Entrance Hall was huge, even bigger than Albus had expected it to be. He looked around with awe, noticing that Scorpius was gazing around in much the same manner. Near the doors were four hourglasses; one full of rubies, one full of sapphires, one full of emeralds, and one full of what looked like yellow-tinted diamonds. There were no gems in the bottom of the hourglass yet, but all were collected at the top. Directly in front of them was a large marble staircase heading onto an upper floor of the entrance hall, where two passageways trailed out of sight, hidden behind the wall.

There were passages down here too, as Albus noticed wooden doors in all directions. They all looked expectantly at one set of double-doors, where light streamed from underneath and voices could be heard. Professor Lockett instead led them towards another door and ushered them into a side chamber. They piled in, some of them pressed shoulder-to-shoulder as the room was clearly not meant to house fifty-six students for very long.

"How many of you are nervous?" Professor Lockett asked them, standing in the doorway. Very few students raised their hands and she narrowed her eyes at them. "Be truthful. I am an experienced witch and I can _tell_ if you're being truthful or not. Now is not the time to act cool."

Almost every hand in the room went up, Albus' own hand included. Professor Lockett smiled warmly at them then.

"Thank you. I assure you all that it is perfectly normal to be nervous. Now I will tell you a bit about our school." she began explaining. "We have four houses here. Can someone tell me what those houses are called?" Many hands rose in the air, but it was Rose that she called on.

"Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin." Rose said, all in one breath and flushing as Professor Lockett smiled at her. The witch had pearly-white teeth, Albus noticed.

"Excellent!" Professor Lockett said brightly, and Rose's cheeks turned almost as red as her hair out of pride. "Now I know some houses have been given unfair reputations, so I'm going to take you through all of them. Many say Gryffindors are arrogant and foolish, but Gryffindors can also be brave, chivalrous, and self-sacrificing. Many say Ravenclaws lack social skills or care little for them in their quest for knowledge, and also state that they are teacher's pets. While this could be true for _some_ of them, just as some Gryffindors are arrogant, there are others who simply yearn for knowledge and are good and sociable friends nonetheless. Some say Hufflepuffs are the loser house, or the house for people who aren't any of the other three. This is also untrue to a good degree, Hufflepuffs are very loyal and dedicated people. And Slytherins…"

Professor Lockett looked a bit grave as she mentioned Slytherin, but Scorpius puffed out his chest proudly and Tom smirked.

"Slytherins are, whatever you may have been told, _not_ inherently or automatically evil." Professor Lockett began, peering around at every student's face. "Slytherin house is full of ambitious and charismatic students. They are success-oriented and very good at what they do. Make no mistake of characterizing houses, regardless what others may have told you. Not all Ravenclaws are geniuses; I have known many in my day who were particularly interested with just one branch of knowledge and were dismal in other areas. Hufflepuffs are not the "bottom house", they are all hardworking people and some of the kindest you will know, but fierce when their loved ones are threatened. Gryffindors are not always heroes or even necessarily good people, just as not all Slytherins are evil. Magical history may have given you a false impression, but do not be swayed by this. Hogwarts has entered a somewhat shady period as a result of dark times. Many are being judged too quickly by their house over their content of character."

Rose caught Albus' eye, shooting him a significant look. Albus gave the slightest of nods to show her he had picked up on the grave tone in Professor Lockett's voice.

"Now, on to Hogwarts itself. We go by a point-based system here. Triumphs in your class, club, or team will result in gained house points. Breaking school rules, which were outlined very clearly in the new pamphlet in your letters, will result in a loss of house points. Teachers have rules of their own, so make sure to go over their class rules with great detail. At the end of the year, we have a celebration where the house with the most house points is awarded the House Cup, which is a great honor."

"We are about to begin the Sorting Ceremony, a most important ceremony we hold every year to place new students where they belong. I understand that many of you are hungry - do not worry, we will have the Start-of-Term feast immediately after the Sorting. Wait here and make no noise, or I shall punish you at once. Our headmaster isn't prone to accepting foolishness. I will come fetch you when we are ready." Professor Lockett added, striding out of the room and shutting the door behind her. Torches came to light around them.

"Hm, that was quite a lengthy speech about house perceptions." Rose remarked, eyeing Albus and Scorpius. "It seems Hogwarts may still be having problems with house separation. Things have been like this since the Second Wizarding War. As Professor Lockett said, it has created quite a rift between houses."

"That was a rather interesting professor." Scorpius remarked. "She was pretty young, wasn't she? I've never heard of someone making deputy head that young. They were always older, I suppose, forties at least."

"Our headmaster is in his early forties, which I suppose is also fairly young." Rose added helpfully. "Professor Gideon Greyjay, he's quite a talented Scottish wizard, hence how he got the job. He started as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher under Minerva McGonagall when she took over, but got the job when she retired. Of course, as headmaster he can't exactly teach classes anymore, so we've got a fairly new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

The chamber flooded with outside light as Professor Lockett returned to them. Everyone became silent at once. She peered around at her new students and smiled. Albus tried to pat his hair down innocuously.

"We're ready for you. Please follow me."

Albus and Scorpius hastened to follow the professor out of the chamber and to the double doors. She waited until they could all arrange themselves into two even rows before she swung the doors wide and strode in, the students following her. They all gaped at the interior of the hall as they caught their first-ever glimpse at it.

The Great Hall seemed to have no roof, for one thing. Albus looked up to see how high the roof went and got a shock when he only saw the night sky, glistening with stars, constellations, and the bright round orb that was the moon. There were also a dozen floating candles that seemed magically incapable of dripping wax on the students below them, who sat at four long tables that had been rearranged in years since. The Gryffindor table was the table on the farthest to their right now, with Hufflepuff beside it. On the other side of the walkway and to the immediate left was the Ravenclaw table, with Slytherin on its other side and closest to the left-side wall. As they walked by, a group of hissing Ravenclaws gawked at them, perhaps sifting through their number to see who looked like a prospective Ravenclaw first year. On their other side, Hufflepuffs smiled warmly at all of them and offered welcoming words. They stopped where part of the hall inclined to raise the teacher's table higher than the others. In the gap between the teachers' tables and the student tables was a single stool with a tattered-looking wizard's hat on it.

"Now first, the Sorting Hat here would like to treat you all to a song." Professor Lockett said with a nostalgic smile. "Please pay attention." The hat on the stool's brim opened wide like a mouth and it sang:

"_While I may look old and worn_

_New first years, you will learn_

_How a hat seemingly so forlorn_

_Can sort you in the house you yearn_

_It started with the friends four_

_The founders known by all_

_And how they decided on houses_

_Before their untimely fall_

_Those who were brave and bold_

_Were the best that Gryffindor saw_

_But students who valued knowledge_

_Were favored by Ravenclaw_

_Those who were ambitious and cunning_

_Were highly prized by Slytherin_

_While those kind and hardworking_

_Were known as Hufflepuff's kin_

_The four existed in peace and harmony_

_Until one fateful day_

_Where sly old Slytherin posed a thought;_

_To cast those born to Muggles away_

_Regardless of their ability_

_Or their magical skill_

_Slytherin felt these students_

_Would drive Hogwarts downhill_

_The other three disagreed_

_And a battle then took place_

_Between Godric and Salazar_

_With the latter leaving in disgrace_

_All four houses still stand today_

_After a fire-forged test_

_Where the dark lord and his accomplices_

_Caused quite a bit of unrest_

_The four houses stand, all strong and proud_

_As the school year begins anew_

_So, to the little first years I ask_

_Which house will be the house for you?"_

The Great Hall applauded loudly and the hat gave a funny sort of bow to each of the four houses that clapped respectfully for it. Professor Lockett smiled at her first years for another moment before snapping her fingers. A roll of parchment landed in her other hand and she unrolled it.

"When I call your name, you will come up and sit on this stool." Professor Lockett explained. "I will then place the Sorting Hat on your head, and it will tell us which house you belong in. We have foreign students among us this year, so those students will have their country called as well, to give you an idea of how far some of these young witches and wizards have come for a Hogwarts experience." Some of the first-years nodded. Albus tried to catch Neville's eye from where he stood, noticing the kind Herbology teacher chatting animatedly to the man in the headmaster's seat. Their headmaster _did_ look rather young and handsome, with pale skin and thick brown hair.

"First...from Hawaii we have Aalona, Leah!" Professor Lockett called. A caramel-skinned girl with flowing brown hair walked up. She was rather beautiful and looked lively and proud as she strode up to the stool. She sat down on it delicately, a grin on her face as the hat dropped gently onto her head.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat boomed. The Hufflepuffs to the right of the first years burst into loving applause as Leah stepped down from the stool and returned the Sorting Hat to Lockett, moving to an empty section of the Hufflepuff table. A prefect on standby tapped her house-neutral robes and crest. Yellow streaked across her uniform, while the crest suddenly filled to have black and yellow, with a badger in it. Leah grinned at her new Hufflepuff robes and waited to see who was next.

"Ackerley, Alan!"

A boy with brown hair that was tufted in the front stepped up next, trembling a bit. His uniform was completely crisp and looked well-tended. He sat on the stool, looking a bit green for about twelve seconds before the hat decided where it would put him.

"RAVENCLAW!" bellowed the hat. Alan sighed with relief and slid off the stool as Lockett plucked the Sorting Hat off his head. He headed to the immediate left of the first years and sat proudly at his new table, shaking hands with several Ravenclaws. A prefect casually tapped Alan's robes with his wand as he went by. Unlike Leah Aalona's yellow and black Hufflepuff display, bronze and blue streaked across parts of Alan's uniform while an eagle appeared in the crest around the breast of the robe.

"From Puerto Rico, we have Acosto Velez, Enrique!"

A tall boy with light brown skin and short-cropped black hair came up next. He was peering around with wide brown eyes as he sat on the stool, his vision being obscured by the Sorting Hat a few seconds later. The Sorting Hat didn't take long to place Enrique, either.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted again, so Enrique bounded down to join Leah at the Hufflepuff table, where the older Hufflepuffs were acquainting the newcomers to their house. Gryffindor and Slytherin looked on impatiently, waiting to see the first students in their respective houses.

"Alpert, Evelyn!"

A small strawberry-blond girl with a beret in her hair was the next to head up the the Sorting Hat, looking somewhat calm as she sat on the stool and waited a few seconds to be sorted.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat cried and the table to the far left of the first years exploded with applause as little Evelyn Alpert skipped over to her new house. She acquired new uniform colors from a prefect there too, being seen seconds later in green and silver.

"Beckham, Brian!"

A small and mousy-looking boy with brown hair and freckles came up next, looking terrified. His knees looked half ready to buckle as he stumbled up to the stool, going paler every second. The hat fell over his head.

"Bet he's a Hufflepuff." Tom wagered behind them.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Sorting Hat cried. Brian squeaked nervously and nearly tipped the stool over as he jammed the hat into Professor Lockett's hands and bolted down to the Hufflepuff table. Leah Aalona seemed intent on calming the small boy, who had gone as pearly as some of the ghosts that had begun appearing. The Fat Friar looked ecstatic to have three Hufflepuffs already.

"From France, we have Belcourt, Georges!"

Albus watched as the tall French boy headed to Ravenclaw house, where "Boot, Fiona" joined him a mere minute later. A freckled boy named "Bosler, Tyler" was the first Gryffindor and Albus couldn't help but feel annoyed by how showy the boy was acting about it. A Swedish transfer named "Blomgren, Else" joined Tyler a minute and a half later, looking uncomfortable as the freckled boy repeatedly tried catching her eye.

"From Germany, we have Braun, Hilda!"

A girl with flaxen hair, bright blue eyes, and pale skin was the next one up to the stool. She looked rather calm about her sorting too, even smirking a little bit as the hat fell over her eyes. She seemed reassured by the hat's appearance, if anything.

"RAVENCLAW!"

"From Australia is Brutus, Hamlin!"

Hamlin turned out to be yet another transfer and was an impressive one at that. He the tallest and most muscular of the first years, with thick brown hair, light colored eyes, and a handsome smile. He was confident in his sorting too, which was easy enough to guess.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Bullock, Adriana!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Claudel, Benjamin!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Corner, Bianca!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Creevey, Caroline!"

As the small and mousy Creevey girl was sorted in Gryffindor and red and gold burst across parts of her uniform, Albus and Scorpius exchanged looks at one another. It all depended on whether they would end up in the same house or not right now. There was silence as Bran's skinny brown-haired friend, "Dagforth, Ulric" was made a Ravenclaw. They watched as "Davies, Carly" became a Ravenclaw with Ulric and saw Slytherins cheer when "Dirksen, Katie" went to Slytherin.

"Elkins, Collin!"

A small boy with brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles walked up next. He looked rather pale and averted his gaze to the ground instead of gazing around at his fellow students like all of the others had. The Sorting Hat sat on his head for a full minute before it decided where the pale boy was destined.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat bellowed and the Slytherins erupted in applause, many of them hastening to shake Collin's hand as the boy put on a smirk that was perhaps a bit too crooked. He looked awkward as he sat at the Slytherin table, talking to some older students.

"Something odd about that one." Scorpius murmured as "Ethel, Estella" was called up and sorted in Hufflepuff. "I don't like him."

"Finch-Fletchley, Joel!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Albus recognized Joel Finch-Fletchley from a gathering once, as the son of his father's friend, Justin. Joel was beaming with pride as he headed down to the Hufflepuff table and sat with the other new Hufflepuffs. Albus also recognized "Finnigan, Ciaran" and watched as the boy made Gryffindor, his proud older sister Claire on standby to welcome him over. _Fat chance of James doing that to me if I make Gryffindor_, Albus thought glumly. It was more likely that James would make him look stupid in front of all of his friends.

"Green, Warren!"

A small and round-faced boy with a gap between his front teeth got up. He was definitely one of the smaller first years, along with Bran and Brian Beckham. His blond hair was tousled as he got up to the stool and sat there, trembling.

"This one looks like he's going to cry." Tom mused aloud. "I'm not betting on Slytherin for him, and he doesn't look smart enough to be a Ravenclaw. I'll bet he's Hufflepuff."

"That's a Gryffindor." Scorpius retorted. "Five galleons on it."

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat boomed and Tom begrudgingly fished five golden galleons out of his pocket and put them in a smug Scorpius' palm as an almost-crying Warren bounded to Gryffindor table, nearly forgetting the Sorting Hat was still on his head until Professor Lockett grabbed him by the back of his robes and snatched the hat back from him, earning bouts of laughter from the students. After Warren came "Harmel, Cassandra" who had long dark hair. She was placed promptly in Gryffindor and seemed pleased about it.

"Harries, Thomas!"

Tom faced Albus and Scorpius for a moment before turning his guarded eyes up towards the teachers as he strode up to the stool. He did a pretty good job of not looking nervous too, Albus noted. Tom sat down on the stool and smirked as Lockett lowered the hat on him, but the hat had barely touched his head…

"SLYTHERIN!" the Sorting Hat screamed and if the Slytherins had been wild about getting the Elkins kid, they blew the roof off of the Great Hall with their cheering now. Tom's smirk broadened into a mischievous grin as he strode calmly over to the Slytherin table, shaking hands with everyone that got close enough to him.

"From America, we have Helton, Amber!" Lockett said next as a rather pretty girl with chocolate-brown hair and emerald green eyes made her way up to the stool. The Sorting Hat sat on her head for a full minute too, but had decided where to put her.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat cried again and several impressed-looking Slytherins gave her a standing ovation, an interested Tom Harries among them. Tom smirked at Albus and Scorpius as Amber sat beside him eagerly.

"Little git's already getting the girls." Scorpius snorted playfully to Albus, who laughed. Slytherin was going wild with applause again as a brown-haired and slightly befreckled girl named Elizabeth Higgs had also joined the Slytherins. They watched as the two Jansen twins named Angelica and Gretchen headed to Ravenclaw, but "Macmillan, Edmund" was another Hufflepuff. Edmund recognized Albus and smiled proudly as he went to sit with his best friend, Joel.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!"

Scorpius turned inordinately pale and shot Albus an apprehensive look before he walked up to the stool. The Slytherin table was watching him intently while the rest of the hall whispered among themselves. Albus knew Scorpius was expected in Slytherin and would likely be sorted there. He upheld a lot of the Slytherin traits, after all. Still, as Scorpius sat there, Albus couldn't help but hope things might be different. Much to the surprise of the Great Hall though, Scorpius sat up there for quite a while before the Sorting Hat decided.

"SLYTHERIN!" the Sorting Hat boomed and the Slytherin table went wild with applause once more as members from all sides of the table scrambled to shake the hand of the Malfoy boy. Scorpius sat on the opposite end of the table and nodded to Albus, eyes intent as "Mannes, Violet" was called up to the stool.

Albus gulped and turned to face the front just as Violet was put in Ravenclaw.

"McLaggen, Richard!"

A tall and rather good-looking boy of eleven was the next to stride up, puffing out his chest proudly. Some of the Gryffindors applauded either enthusiastically or begrudgingly as the boy had the Sorting Hat placed on his head. Richard McLaggen seemed arrogant enough in Albus' mind to be a destined Gryffindor like his father Cormac was, but apparently the Sorting Hat had other plans as the boy waited for his house.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat cried after twenty seconds. The Gryffindor table was frozen with surprise by this news and Richard looked shocked himself as he staggered away from the stool and to the excited Slytherin table. Albus saw Scorpius give Richard a shrug as Tom patted the seat beside him.

"Melton, Maya" went to Gryffindor amid much applause and smiled brightly at everyone when she did, but the smaller and more timid "Morrell, Kara" looked half about to faint when it came time to sort her and was relieved when a few motherly older girls helped her over to the Gryffindor table as well. A bratty-looking boy with curly brown hair named "Murphy, Jamison" found himself as the third Gryffindor in a row to be sorted, but seemed greatly unimpressed as he sat by a sniveling Warren Green. As Albus' attention turned to the Gryffindor table, a pretty girl with ruddy brown hair named "Nattingley, Julia" had just gone to Slytherin, much to Tom's amusement.

"Olivier, Bem!"

A tall and thin black boy strode up to the Sorting Hat, a broad and likable grin on his face as he made his way up. Albus admired his clearly controlled nerves as he sat down and waited with the hat on his head for a few minutes. Albus would have expected Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, but turned out to be wrong.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat called again and Bem brightly walked over to the Slytherin table. Albus was surprised. Despite what James said about the Slytherins being a bad-looking lot, a lot of the girls in Slytherin so far looked perfectly nice and normal. Bem didn't look like he could harm a fly with that wide and amiable grin he had.

"Oster-Shanks, Branegan!"

Albus turned at once to see a small and nervous Bran heading up to the Sorting Hat. He liked Bran, but sincerely hoped the boy would be a Ravenclaw, knowing it was the house where Bran truly belonged. Bran's knees were knocking together as the hat was dropped on his head, but it only stayed there for two seconds this time.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat roared and Bran got up, smiling with pure delight on his face as he raced to the Ravenclaw table. His skinny friend, Ulric Dagforth, was the first to stand and welcome him, even giving him a hug as the blonde "Oxford, Savannah" was called up. Albus didn't suppose he'd mind Ravenclaw...they looked like a nice bunch as well. But Albus supposed by seeing some of the sortings so far that you really couldn't judge the houses this year by how they looked, especially as a tough-looking boy with short black hair and an ear piercing named "Parrish, Stephen" ended up in Hufflepuff, whom Albus had been told always _looked_ like the small and timid ones.

"Potter, Albus!"

If whispers had erupted around the hall for Scorpius, then they exploded when Albus was called up. Albus took in a deep breath and couldn't help but tremble as he walked up to the stool and sat down on it. He could see James grinning tauntingly at Gryffindor, holding a rubber toy snake in his hand and pointing at Albus. Albus wasn't bothered by James' teasing this time though as he turned to the other side of the hall and saw Scorpius' hands clasped together so tightly that his knuckles were going white. The last thing he saw aside from people staring at him was Scorpius mouthing over and over again "_Please be in Slytherin."_

_Ah, I've been waiting for this moment, Mr. Potter_, said a voice in Albus' head. _Your brother was an easy sorting, but I saw how he perceived you from inside his head and knew you would be a fun one to sort. You're a challenge, Potter, just like your father was_.

"_My dad was hard to sort too?"_ Albus asked the voice in his head, surprised. Harry had never told Albus exactly what his sorting had been like, only that the Sorting Hat took choice into the matter.

_Yes, he had the right build for a Slytherin, but chose Gryffindor with his friends. But Albus Potter, I expect you to be better, _the voice in his head replied smoothly. _You're already having doubts about what your brother said about the houses. You saw Bem be sorted. He was a kindhearted and fun-loving soul and still ended up in Slytherin because he's ambitious, Potter. You saw Stephen Parrish, who was tough and rebellious, but he was unwaveringly fair and loyal...so he belonged in Hufflepuff._

"_Well, where do __**I**_ _belong?"_ Albus asked. The hat thought for a moment, as though carefully choosing what to say.

_You can __**belong **__in any house, Mr. Potter_, the hat replied genuinely. _It is not so much _**_where_**_ you belong now as it is in finding which house would _**_help_**_ you achieve your full potential. I think you already realize that Hufflepuff is not that house, Potter. Neither is Gryffindor. If you became a Gryffindor, you would be-_

"_Expected to live up to or surpass the expectations James has already set, I know." _Albus replied back. "_James gets in a lot of mischief at school, but he gets good marks. If I was a Gryffindor too, they might expect me to be like him."_

_You already know which house is free of those expectations, _the Sorting Hat told him. _You already know which house you've made friends in. You already know which house is the only house that nobody in your entire family has been in. Now it's up to you to __**choose**__, Mr. Potter._

"_Isn't it your job to choose?" _Albus asked the Sorting Hat. "_I thought it was you who decided."_

_Mr. Potter, I want you to think carefully of the houses you have just seen and choose for yourself, _the Sorting Hat replied to him once more. _You are not like other first years. You have considered the words your deputy headmistress and friends have told you. You have been thinking about this the entire time. Think some more, Mr. Potter. There's no time limit._

So Albus thought of the houses he had seen. He was not surprised when he ruled Hufflepuff out first. They seemed like a nice enough house, but it just didn't feel quite right to picture himself sitting there with them. Ravenclaw had more appeal to it, but he didn't want to put himself in a house full of students who might be wiser and more diligent than he was...he'd be setting himself up to fail if he wasn't at least as good as they were. Gryffindor or Slytherin...Gryffindor or Slytherin...Gryffindor or…

It was surprising at first, what Albus thought next, but he thought Slytherin looked like a more suitable house than Gryffindor for the first time. He recalled how rather normal and how _ordinary_ the Gryffindor first years looked, especially remembering the sniveling Warren Green and the cocky-looking Jamison Murphy. He wasn't usually one to think like this as far as he knew, but Albus thought then that he would stand out there. Not because he was weird or because he was abnormal, but because he was _better_. Besides, did he want to fulfill everyone's expectations? He remembered the shock of the Gryffindors when Richard McLaggen joined the Slytherins. Even though Richard had looked like the model Gryffindor, he ended up in Slytherin instead. If they had been dumbstruck about Richard, then they would riot about Albus.

"_Alright, you know where to put me." _Albus thought, smirking as the Sorting Hat's brim opened up like a mouth.

"SLYTHERIN!" the Sorting Hat screamed. The Gryffindors had started applauding as the brim opened but stopped abruptly as Professor Lockett removed the hat from Albus' head. Their jaws had dropped open and Albus felt a bit shocked but also pleased to see James staring ahead with his mouth open wide in surprise. The Great Hall still roared with applause, but as Albus looked at the silent and staring tables of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw, he realized the noise was coming from one place.

The Slytherins had gone berserk with applause, roaring and booming loud enough for the entire Great Hall. They clapped their hands, whistled, stamped their feet and made as much noise as they possibly could, enjoying the looks on the faces of their Gryffindor rivals as Albus Severus Potter strode over to Scorpius Malfoy, who was beside himself with joy. Scorpius didn't even care to compose himself as he threw his arms around Albus' shoulders and cheered. Albus hugged his new friend back and sat with him at the table. Professor Lockett waited until the Slytherins had calmed down before continuing the sorting.

"You've done it mate, you're a Slytherin!" Scorpius cried as a prefect's wand tapped Albus' house-neutral robes and turned them into Slytherin attire while "Richman, Phoebe" was called up. "I hoped you'd be with us, you belong here. Don't you see?" The funny thing was that Albus _did_ see. Slytherins beamed and smirked at him from all down the table, proud to have a Potter in their house and it felt inexplicably _right_ to Albus to be here with the Slytherins. He shook hands with the other Slytherin first years and was caught off guard when one of them turned the handshake down for a hug. It was Bem Olivier, who was smiling brightly and had tears in his eyes.

"So proud to be in a house with a Potter!" Bem cried harmoniously, still smiling amiably. "Me old ma's going to be in tears when she knows."

"Thank...thank you." Albus stammered, feeling highly flattered as Phoebe Richman headed to Ravenclaw while "Schultz, Tessa" joined the Slytherins. Albus and his friends turned to see the other sortings. "Seibold, David" headed to the Ravenclaws, but "Singh, Shreyes" and "Sproles, Jason" both headed to Hufflepuff. The Gryffindors applauded when they got "Stylins, Lillian", but were still clearly shell-shocked by Albus' sorting and returned to their shocked state when "Symons, Ariel" joined the Hufflepuffs.

"From Japan is "Takashiro, Sōsuke!" Professor Lockett cried. A pale Japanese boy with dark brown eyes and neat jet-black hair walked up confidently. The hat had barely touched him when it made a choice.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Albus stood with the other Slytherins and clapped as Sōsuke strode over to them, smiling. Albus was one of the first people to shake Sōsuke's hand and offered him a seat on the other side of him. He was eager to hear what Sōsuke thought of Britain and Hogwarts so far and determined to make the boy's foreign schooling experience a pleasant one. They all watched as Dean Thomas' son Ryan made Gryffindor like his father did and ran to Ciaran Finnigan. A British-born Chinese boy named "Wang, Patrick" found himself in Ravenclaw and was welcomed by Bran, but "Warner, Winona" joined the Slytherins and was welcomed warmly by Julia Nattingley and Evelyn Alpert.

"Weasley, Rose!"

Rose separated herself from the few unsorted first years and walked up to the Sorting Hat. If Albus was correct - and he liked to think he usually was - Rose would be like every other Weasley thus far and end up in Gryffindor house. Albus knew Rose had wanted to be in Gryffindor like her mother was. But as he watched her and saw how long the hat was taking, he became unsure.

"RAVENCLAW!" screamed the hat and silence fell over the Great Hall, save for the politely applauding Ravenclaw table, which was louder than usual. Ulric Dagforth and Bran made room for her near them and she beamed at them, ignoring the catatonic-looking Gryffindor table. _Oh yes, _Albus thought brightly, _this was quite a year of surprises_. Gryffindor didn't get the Potter _or _the Weasley kids it expected this year, but Victoire and Dominique were cheering Rose on as Gryffindor's only unsurprised members. James looked near about to faint and Albus grinned at Rose as she smiled at him from Ravenclaw table.

The only two unsorted first years left was a girl with ruddy-brown hair named Rebecca Wembleton and a tall and somewhat pudgy boy with hair like straw named Bartholomew Zuckerman. Rebecca proudly headed to Hufflepuff while Bartholomew found himself at Gryffindor table on Jamison Murphy's other side. The entire Great Hall buzzed with discussion until their young headmaster stood.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, or back to Hogwarts for those of you that have been here for a while now." Professor Greyjay said in a smooth Scottish accent, smiling at them. "For those of you that have just been sorted, I am your headmaster, Professor Gideon Greyjay. It seems we have just had quite the sorting, if I do say so myself. We have had boys and girls sorted in the house they expected while others were...definitely more of a _surprise_. But no matter. I assure you that each and every one of you will find that you belong in the house you now sit with. Now without further ado, let the feast begin!"

Albus gasped as the plates on the table suddenly filled with food, so much food he could barely believe it. There were goblets of pumpkin juice lined up around the table, while every large plate had some kind of food on it. There were steaming-hot plates of roast beef and roast chicken while another had servings of lamb chops or pork chops. There were potato side dishes of every kind, be it boiled, roasted, or baked with a choice of butter, cheese, or sour cream. Warm servings of rather juicy and tender-looking steak appeared nearby, just as bowls full of chips and Yorkshire pudding situated themselves nearby. Albus took a few pieces of bacon from a plate that had bacon and sausages of every kind, noticing even the vegetable dishes full of peas and carrots were being emptied. He watched as Scorpius took a particularly juicy bit of steak for himself while Albus placed some roast chicken on his plate and began to eat. There were even peppermint humbugs here, though Albus had no idea why peppermint humbugs would be on the menu. Bem was rather politely eating a baked potato with butter, but Richard McLaggen wasn't particularly neat about devouring his lamb chops. Albus swore he thought he saw Richard sneaking some roast chicken into a crinkled bag before stowing the whole thing in the pocket of his robe. Albus himself pocketed a few of the boiled carrots to give to Merlin as a treat.

"Food's just as good as Mum's." Tom said heartily as he poured tomato soup from a tureen into his bowl. "Excellent stuff. It's house elves that made it, you know. That's a wise lot when it comes to premium cooking."

"House elves?" Albus asked, thinking of Kreacher back home at 12 Grimmauld Place. Albus had always been proud of his bond with Kreacher, who favored Albus over the other Potter children. Kreacher liked all of Harry Potter's kids, but he found "Master James" to be "too mischievous" and Albus suspected that if Kreacher had to pick a least favorite, it would be James. But regardless, Kreacher was a very integral part of the family now. Lily absolutely _adored_ Kreacher though, and the house-elf returned the same kind of adoration back to her, saying that she reminded him of a young "Miss Cissy". The house-elf was one of Lily's favorite playmates, right along with Rose's younger brother, Hugo.

The house that had once been full of creepy objects and dark furniture had been converted into a family home. Uncle Ron often spoke of what a job it had been to remove the wall that the painting of Walburga Black had been permanently fixed on, as well as the walls in the rooms of Sirius and Regulus Black, which had previously not been suitable for young children or representative of the houses they would be in...until now. Aunt Hermione said much of the walls had needed removing, due to permanently fixed Black family "heirlooms" that seemed to be more along the lines of garbage to Albus' parents. By the time Albus and James were old enough to own the rooms, they had been equipped with brand-new walls.

The two had originally shared Sirius' room until Ginny saw what a bad idea this had been and she moved Albus into Regulus' old room. Under the ownership of the Potters, the house no longer had pictures of gaunt-looking witches and wizards, but smiling portraits of family and friends. Albus' own room was very tidy and well-kept; James was quite the opposite and had a very messy room that was covered in Gryffindor banners - enough to where Harry often said they could have left most of Sirius' walls up. Lily on the other hand, had inherited the room on the first floor, which was "pinker than it had ever been", according to Uncle Ron, who had slept in the room at some point during the Second Wizarding War.

"Oi, Al, are you listening?" Scorpius asked, bringing Albus back to the Slytherin table. "Tom's just said that the kitchens are right below us and that the elves bring the food up here from right below. Is that cool or what?"

"Yeah." Albus said. "I've got a house elf at home, that's what I was just thinking about."

"Miss him, do you?" Scorpius quizzed. "Not many people have house elves these days, and everyone's got to treat them well. Your aunt wrote the bit of legislation that earned them better treatment, right?"

"Yeah, Aunt Hermione." Albus said, catching Rose's eye from the Ravenclaw table as she clearly overheard them. "She was always for promoting fairness towards the house elves."

They all ate as much as they could, but suddenly the dinners disappeared and desserts appeared in their stead. Everything looked tasty too, Albus thought as he took a large piece of Black Forest Cake while Scorpius dug into some chocolate ice cream. Tom was eating a treacle tart across from them, while Richard's lips still had traces of jam on it from the doughnuts. They ate their fill until the rest of the desserts disappeared and noticed their headmaster was standing.

"Now that we've all been nourished appropriately, I have some announcements to make." Professor Greyjay said. "As many of you will know after the whole Grand Staircase incident, Mr. Filch has decided to retire along with his cat, Mrs. Norris. It has been hard finding an accurate replacement for him, but we have found someone for the job...er, well a duo, let's say. I'd like you all to welcome Mr. Caradoc Steele, and his cat, Mr. Buxley!"

They saw a grey-haired man with missing teeth and ropy arms standing there with the most scroungy and angry-looking Persian cat Albus had ever seen. The cat looked like it wore a permanent scowl and Albus noticed an aghast look on Scorpius' face and thought that the boy might have a soft spot for cats.

"Now, I must also warn you that the Forbidden Forest is called the _Forbidden_ Forest for a reason." Professor Greyjay said, eyeing James and his friends. "If you were allowed to go there, it would be called the _Permitted_ Forest, but it is not, so kindly keep away from it. Students found going in there _will_ be punished. Now, before we head up to bed, let us sing the school song! As former headmaster Albus Dumbledore would suggest, everyone ought to pick their own tune and begin!"

Professor Lockett gave her wand a little wave and golden words appeared in the air. Though most of the first years stood silently with their houses, unsure what to do, the older students all began to sing:

_Hogwarts, Hogwarts,  
Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,  
Teach us something please,  
Whether we be old and bald,  
Or young with scabby knees,  
Our heads could do with filling,  
With some interesting stuff,  
For now they're bare and full of air,  
Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
So teach us things worth knowing,  
Bring back what we've forgot,  
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
And learn until our brains all rot._

"Excellent!" Professor Greyjay cried, beaming at them all when James had finished his own "opera" rendition of the song. "Now, prefects, show your new students to the dormitories! Tomorrow at breakfast, the class schedules will be distributed, so do arrive early if you can! Off you all trot now, we have a big day tomorrow! Our first years will be getting their first weekend in Hogwarts, after all!"

"First year Slytherins, my name is Ralph Pucey and I am your prefect. Please follow me!" cried a voice. A tall and thin boy with jet-black hair and blue-green eyes appeared before them. He was fairly built and wore a bright badge with a P on it. He beamed as they all got out of their seats and followed him out of the Great Hall. As they walked, they passed by a procession of Gryffindors in the Entrance Hall, James among them.

"Al...I didn't know!" James cried apologetically to his younger brother. "I thought you'd…"

"Be a Gryffindor?" Albus asked, not caring that his friends could see. "It's fine James, go on now. You lot in Gryffindor are going to need all the house points you can get, because Slytherin's going to take the cup this year! Both of them, because I'm going to see to it personally that you get knocked off your broom."

James' eyes widened for a moment before the older Potter grinned at Albus in the sort of way that said "_Bring it on."_ Albus grinned wickedly back at James before turning to follow his companions. Scorpius was beaming at Albus, nodding his head appreciatively.

"Not bad, Potter. You're an excellent Slytherin already."

"Shut up Scorps." Albus snickered, having a full-on fit of laughter when Scorpius shot him an indignant look from being called _Scorps_. Albus and Scorpius trailed along at the end of their line of first-year Slytherins, watching as they left the Entrance Hall for the dungeons. They headed down several sets of stairs, winding deeper into the cold and dark dungeons until they reached a stone wall in between bookshelves that was indistinguishable as the common room entrance only by a pair of torches and a small carving of a snake in the centre of the wall. Ralph tapped the tail of the snake with his wand.

"_Asp_." he said in a smooth voice. For Albus, this seemed an impossibly easy first password - it was what his initials spelled out, after all. The carving of the snake began to glow green. The wall suddenly opened up, revealing a stone staircase that descended into the dark and seemed to narrow.

"I didn't know that was there." Tom Harries said in a rather carrying way. "Why's it changed since my father went here?"

"After the Second Wizarding War, a lot of the school had to be rebuilt. The school has even more secrets now than it ever did, I reckon." Ralph Pucey said brightly to the young Slytherins as he ushered them down the stairs. The wall closed behind them, causing them all to gasp. The tunnel filled with a low green light that clearly illuminated all of them and the passage ahead. Ralph was smiling, arms crossed.

"It's a security measure." Ralph explained. "Only Slytherin students can see this light and distinguish the door into the common room from the wall. To anyone other than a Slytherin, they will be trapped in what seems to be an empty dark passage until someone discovers them. It's to prevent any dormitory invasions, you see. You can only see anything in this passage and on these stone steps if you were invited here by a Slytherin, or if you're a teacher."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Scorpius breathed, looking at Albus. Albus couldn't help but nod. So far, the Slytherin dormitory was already brilliant, and they had yet to step foot in it. They saw a turn up ahead and carefully followed Ralph down it, seeing a door with a snake on it just ahead of them. A jet of wind hit them, making a sound that gave them the impression that it was hissing and its eyes glowed bright red for a moment as the door began to swing open.

"Another defense measure right there, much like the Thief's Downfall at Gringotts Bank." Ralph explained proudly. "That gust of wind washes away concealments and enchantments that one might use to attempt to break into the Slytherin dormitory. I'd say we're the best defended house of Hogwarts. Ah, in we go!"

Albus gasped for the umpteenth time that night. The Slytherin common room looked rather like a dungeon, but it was a very elegant and well-decorated room. For being under the Hogwarts lake, it wasn't even remotely leaky. The lamps cast off a bright but slightly green tinge, revealing several low-backed black and dark green leather sofas. There were windows peering into the lake with amazing clarity and Albus suspected magic was the reason why the windows withstood the pressure of the lake. So far, Hogwarts wasn't ceasing to amaze him in the slightest.

There was an emerald-painted door with snake designs on it that Ralph pointed out as the adjacent "Reading Room" for homework and study hall sessions private to the Slytherins. There was one other doorway that Ralph pointed out that made every single first year stop dead in their tracks. Over the doorway was a giant skull that looked rather like a snake's aside from its gargantuan size.

"Is that a _real_ skull?" Evelyn Alpert asked, trembling a bit as she stood with Katie Dirksen. Ralph grinned at it.

"Sure is." Ralph replied. "That's a basilisk skull. If I dare say, they did redecorate Slytherin rather well, did they not? The fangs attached on there are fake, however, unless we wanted students dying every time someone thought they could rip one off and give their enemies a jab." Many of the boys nodded their heads appreciatively while Albus noticed Julia Nattingley gazing up at the skull with a curious look. They passed underneath the skull and came to a fork in the stone tunnel. A Slytherin girl with her hair dyed bubble-gum pink appeared beside Ralph.

"Alright then, on we go!" Ralph said. "Girls, follow Glacia Pedersen here, she's the female prefect. She'll lead you to your dorm, which is down the path on the right. Boys, follow me to the left!" The boys followed Ralph down a few small flights of stairs and then up another good few, past doors until they reached a room at the very end.

"Here we go." Ralph said, flicking his wand. The lights in their room came on, revealing seven beds arranged with three on each side and one opposite where they stood. There was also a great window just a few feet over the surface of the lake, revealing the twinkling stars in the darkened sky both above and below, due to the reflectiveness of the lake. "It's a nice little place, you see. Our only room with a window over the surface of the water, as this room is built right against the mountainside. My room's the very bottommost one we passed, and we sometimes get a good view of the Giant Squid, but we never get to see our owls unless we want to carry them up to a room with windows. It's always breezy and cool down here anyway, but your birds can come visit you down here if they wish. Your bed is determined by which one your trunk is in front of. You'll also find your pets are down here. Have an excellent first night!"

Ralph left and the door shut behind them. Albus headed first to the bed directly across from them, but noticed it wasn't his trunk. The trunk at the foot of the solitary bed in the middle was emblazoned with "C.E.". Collin Elkins strode over, bumping Albus with his shoulder as he walked by. Albus scowled at the boy for a moment before heading to the first bed near Collin's in the row of beds on the right side of the room. He recognized the trunk here as his, emblazoned with a golden "A.S.P." Merlin's cage was placed on a bedside table and Albus greeted his ferret. He smiled, noticing the trunk to the left of his bed read "S.H.M."

"Loki!" Scorpius cried suddenly. A blur of fur pounced off of the bed beside Albus', right into the waiting arms of Scorpius Malfoy. A blue-eyed Siamese cat was purring happily and rubbing its head against Scorpius' chest. "Don't worry, he's trained. He won't hurt your Merlin." Scorpius added, perhaps for Albus' benefit. Bem walked over to the window to open it. As soon as he did, a bird zoomed in towards one of the beds on the end. The room conveniently had perches for owls and other birds and as the bird chose a perch, they realized it was a white-tailed eagle.

"Akira!" Sōsuke cried. He reached into the pocket of his robe and brought out a small and rather fishy smelling thing that looked like a cracker, throwing it up to the white-tailed eagle. Akira caught the treat rather deftly in his beak and began devouring it. A flurry of black then entered the window and bounced on the bed directly across from Albus', where Richard McLaggen sat. A full-sized and rather proud-looking raven made a bowing motion several times before croaking loudly in Richard's ear.

"Cripes, Hades!" Richard cried, reaching into his robe pocket and pulling out the crinkled bag with roast chicken from the feast. His raven bobbed up and down again enthusiastically as Richard put the paper plate with leftover roast chicken on top of his trunk. Hades then landed and began pecking at the chicken while Akira watched enviously. All of the Hogwarts pets had to be specifically trained to not attack another's magical familiar before being allowed at the school, so the eagle knew better than to try messing with Hades, especially because Hades was such a big raven as well, Albus supposed.

Scorpius watched brightly as Loki made his way over to a tabby cat that had hopped from Bem's bed. The tabby batted playfully at Loki before the two small cats tore off under Bem's bed. Bem was grinning.

"Tis my cat, Minnie." Bem said in a bright voice. "She's a smart one. She likes your Loki." Scorpius grinned as the two cats appeared in view once more, batting at each other with their paws.

Tom's Great-Horned Owl - Archimedes, Albus recalled - was the next visitor into the room, landing elegantly on the perch beside Tom's bed. Tom stroked the owl's feathers gently and earned an ear nibble before the boy relinquished an owl treat to Archimedes. Archimedes hooted balefully as it took note of all the other creatures in the room, but it instead took off out the window and up to the Owlery on Tom's orders to enjoy the night with fellow owls. Hades left next, presumably to find a nice branch near the grounds to roost in after letting out a few croaks and picking up most of the roast chicken to take with it. Akira was the last one to go, but not before snatching a solitary piece of roast chicken that Hades had neglected.

Albus took some of the ferret food out of his trunk and filled Merlin's food bowl, adding just a few cooked carrots that he had snatched from the feast. Merlin hopped right on the carrots and nibbled gratefully, rubbing his tiny head against Albus' hand for a moment before furiously chewing. Albus locked up Merlin's cage and immediately began changing into his pinstriped pajamas. Scorpius was already wearing pajamas that looked to be of dark green silk. The unity of the Slytherin boys was highlighted though by the fact that nobody remarked on Sōsuke's _Pokémon_ pajamas or Richard's own set, which were white with bears on them.

Albus slipped into bed and meant to ask Scorpius about all the things he had seen, but before he could ask, he fell into a deep sleep.


	3. Ch 3: The First Weekend

Albus woke with a start the next morning as Hades let out a deafening croak. The raven was sitting on Richard's trunk with the most intelligent and mischievous expression on his face, a dead mouse laying on top of the trunk. Albus saw he wasn't the only one that the raven had awakened. Scorpius blinked groggily and rubbed his eyes, sitting up in bed despite Loki's annoyed yowls. The raven hopped onto Richard's bed and presumably gave him a fairly sound pecking, for Richard cried out and the raven hopped onto the trunk to avoid being caught in the blankets as Richard fell out of his bed, entangled in the bedspread. The brown-haired McLaggen boy swore under his breath, getting up and remaking his bed.

Scorpius had placed Loki back on his bed and Albus had placed more food in Merlin's dish. The two of them snatched a change of clothes and towels as the other boys woke up, laughing as a disgusted Richard eyed the dead mouse on his trunk. Hades snatched the dead mouse up at once and dangled it in Richard's face before hopping away with his head held high.

"As if I wanted that rotten old thing." Richard murmured under his breath, pulling out his uniform begrudgingly. He turned to face Albus and Scorpius, peering at them with a curious expression. "Say, you're the Potter and Malfoy kids, right?"

"Of course." Scorpius replied back. "Do I look like a Longbottom? And aren't you McLaggen? Richard or Roger, something or other."

"Ricky, that." Richard snorted, disgusted. "I hate being called Richard. It sounds like an old man's name, but dad favors it when we have company over. Call me Ricky. That'll do just fine."

Albus and Scorpius headed to the showers and cleaned up before changing into their clothes, seeing the other Slytherin boys had entered after they had. The two of them had decided to don the clothes they had worn the previous day, noticing they were mysteriously clean, as were the robes they had worn at the sorting. Albus stared into his trunk with wide eyes. All of his robes were Slytherin robes now. Strangely enough, he rather liked the sight of it.

Scorpius suggested they head up to the Owlery and send letters to their parents. Albus gratefully agreed and the two of them bounded up to the Owlery, quick as lightning. Before long, they sat thoughtfully in the owl-filled room, careful to avoid stepping in owl droppings. Scorpius was jotting things down furiously in a letter to his mum, but Albus thought for a moment before writing a quick letter to catch his parents up to speed.

_Dear Mum and Dad (and Lily),_

_It seems James was right after all, even if he was teasing. I'm the first Slytherin in the family. It's actually really nice so far. The dormitory's so cool and I've made friends there, like Scorpius Malfoy and Tom Harries. I'm excited to see what new classes I've got. I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty good year. Write back soon.  
_

_Lots of love,_

_Albus Severus Potter_

Albus whistled and a school owl swooped down. It was a lively-looking female barn owl that hooted gently at him. He stroked the owl's feathers before offering her the letter.

"Can you take this to Number 12 Grimmauld Place in London?" Albus asked. The owl hooted before taking the letter from him and flying out of the Owlery. He watched as a male screech owl took Scorpius' own letter - which was twice as long as Albus' - from him and flew off.

"Let's head down." Scorpius said, pensively watching the owl carry away his letter. "We're quite a ways from the Great Hall so that it'll be time for breakfast by the time we get there, and I want to get some of the bacon before it's gone." Albus nodded, so the two boys headed downstairs at a trot. Just as they were on the third floor, a boy came from out of nowhere and smacked right into them. Albus and Scorpius fell and the boy was knocked over too, enough so they could see it was Jamison Murphy. With him was Warren Green, Tyler Bosler, and Bart Zuckerman. Jamison's curly brown hair was in a messy tangle, and Warren's robe was fastened unevenly.

"Watch it, snakes." Jamison spat, his curled hair bobbing furiously as he got up. He glared at them with malice and spite, but Albus sensed danger when he saw the look on Scorpius' face. As Albus and Scorpius got to their feet, Scorpius glared fiercely at the Gryffindor boys, eyes full of contempt.

"_You_ watch it!" Scorpius snarled. "It's not wise of you to come running around the corner like that. Oh, but you're a Gryffindor. I know how you lot in Gryffindor are. You think you can go about like you own the place. Well, news flash, there are other people in this castle too."

Jamison's face had turned an ugly color and he reached out to push Scorpius, but not before Scorpius shoved him first. Bart and Tyler yelled and drew their wands, but Albus was ready to retaliate and pulled out his own. They didn't have any magical training and shouldn't have known what to do, but Jamison pointed his wand at Scorpius.

"_Flipendo_!" Jamison cried in a pitchy voice and Scorpius fell back as though shoved. Albus cried out and pointed his wand at Jamison, when he heard a voice behind him. Jamison's friends all had their wands pointed at Albus, when the tables suddenly turned.

"_Everte Statum_!" a voice cried from somewhere nearby. Albus watched as Jamison was lifted off of his feet and flipped several times in the air before landing with a thump on the ground. Bart spun around to see their assailant, but was knocked off of his feet by Scorpius, who had tested the Knockback Jinx after seeing how Jamison had done it. Warren Green, cowardly as he was, turned tail and fled downstairs on his own. Tyler Bosler, left standing alone and vulnerable, decided he wasn't having any of it. He linked an arm under Jamison's while Bart scrambled up and took the other. The three of them cast a horrified look in their assailant's direction before they turned tail and ran. Tom Harries appeared from behind a corner, grinning.

"Sure showed that Gryffindor slime." Tom said with a cheeky grin as he pocketed his wand. Albus and Scorpius then named Tom the wizarding world's hero for the day, even though he had only taken on Jamison's gang under the cover of surprise. Still, a first year knowing a spell like that was pretty impressive, so they hailed him their number one duelist. It wasn't too far from the truth.

They soon learned breakfast was a big affair at Hogwarts as well. Piping-hot plates of eggs in every style appeared around the table, while trays of bacon, sausages, and ham lined the table in other places. There were piles of toast appearing, with butter and marmalade right beside them. Albus also saw breakfast cereal, muesli, kippers, and porridge. Albus reached for the bacon and he and Scorpius ate, mostly talking about the quality of the food with Sōsuke.

"At home, we usually just have miso soup and steamed rice for breakfast." Sōsuke remarked, eyes wide. So far, Albus knew that Sōsuke was somewhat shy and quiet, preferring to stay out of the spotlight if he could help it. He, like many young Japanese wizards, possessed a prized cherry wood wand. Albus had never known how much Japanese wizards prized cherry wood wands until Sōsuke had told him that at the Japanese wizarding school, Mahoutokoro, all of the most successful and popular students had them. The good thing about being acquainted with Sōsuke so far was that as the Japanese wizard grew more and more comfortable, he revealed more and more of the cultural differences between Japan and the United Kingdom.

"It's great, isn't it?" Albus asked as he nibbled his bacon while Scorpius started in on a piece of toast with marmalade. Scorpius nodded enthusiastically, as his mouth was stuffed full of toast and marmalade. Albus hadn't expected the school food to be so brilliant. It was at least just as good as Kreacher's cooking back home, so Albus felt very much like he was at home, minus the absence of the house elf, his parents, and Lily. He sorely missed his family, the way his father would say something he'd read in the paper aloud and the way his mother would encourage him to eat a bit more. He missed Lily singing songs that were usually indistinguishable from one another, but pleasant nonetheless. He missed his parents animatedly discussing Quidditch at the table, or talking about sales that were going on in Diagon Alley. He missed Kreacher as well. The old house elf had his eccentricities, but he was family.

Albus and Scorpius ended up finishing breakfast earlier than the others and headed into the Entrance Hall with Rose. The three of them paused then, unsure what exactly they were going to do. Students milled out of the Great Hall behind them, some groups heading immediately outside or upstairs, with a few groups going down to the dungeons.

"We could go to the library." Rose suggested as Scorpius rolled his eyes. Scorpius was intelligent, but not a bookworm, so Albus was sure his ideal first weekend didn't involve scouring the library. There was a definite mischievous streak in Scorpius that was stronger than whatever may have existed in Albus, who considered himself rather meek and mild-mannered, especially next to James.

"I say we explore the castle." Scorpius said. "Maybe we'll find secret passageways and all. We can see if we can get up to the battlements, at least, that wouldn't be bad. Or perhaps we can go looking around outside, I've heard the Grounds are just as interesting…"

"I'd like to go outside too." Albus said, earning a dirty look from Rose. "Maybe we can stop by Hagrid's while we're out there. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we brought lunch over to his house and ate there, or we could even eat on the grounds with how warm it is outside. We can visit Neville as well."

The three of them headed through the heavy front door and went striding out onto the sweeping lawn of Hogwarts. The grass was a perfect shade of emerald and complimented the bright blue sky above, which was littered by only a few puffy clouds. Albus relished in the way the wind felt right now, nice and refreshing as they headed out further, following Scorpius to where the boy thought the Quidditch Pitch was. Scorpius seemed dead-set on finding the Quidditch Pitch.

"I think I see the goalposts now." Scorpius said loudly, pointing at what looked like a giant hoop up ahead. Albus nodded and Scorpius led them onto a sandy-colored gravel road that was leading them downhill. Rose was lagging behind and Albus knew why at once; she had her bookbag with her and was probably toting a great number of books, if Albus knew her well. The Quidditch Pitch loomed in view and Albus was keen to notice he wasn't the only one gazing at it with awe. Scorpius looked excited at the prospect of finally being here.

"They've upturned the rule about first years being unable to compete, you know." Rose said suddenly, causing Albus and Scorpius to both stop dead in their tracks and stare at one another with awe. Rose noticed and frowned at them both. "Did either of you read the Hogwarts pamphlet that came with the letters at all? Professor Greyjay decided first years should be allowed to try out too, since they've seen some that were exemplary, your dad as an example, Al."

"When?" Scorpius asked frantically, spinning to face Rose. "When are the tryouts?" Albus nodded enthusiastically at her, wanting to know just as much as Scorpius did. Albus had been meaning to try out for the Quidditch team as soon as possible, especially because he wasn't in Gryffindor and didn't have to worry about James taunting him or of being overshadowed by his brother, who was a fine seeker for Gryffindor.

Albus had played Quidditch ever since he was young. His mum and dad both loved Quidditch and when he was very young, his mum had even played chaser for the Holyhead Harpies. In the broom closet at home, they had a Nimbus 2000 and an old Shooting Star that Albus loathed but was always forced to use because James would take the Nimbus before he could get it. They only flew the brooms when visiting their grandparents. But whenever they visited the Burrow with its solitary fields, Albus would sneak out to the broom shed and pull out the Nimbus to go for a flight. He loved the Nimbus, even if it was a model from the early 1990's...back when his father was starting Hogwarts. He and James had begged their parents to get them better broomsticks, but Harry and Ginny adamantly refused to because of the Comet 360 incident. It was unfair, because it wasn't even Albus' fault that the brand-new Comet 360 got wrecked. Back when Albus was only eight, James had nicked Albus' favorite toy and it was by pure blind anger and a complete accident that Albus had set the broom on fire. It was worth it at the time too, to see James scream and leap off the broom, landing in the hedge while Albus caught his favorite toy deftly as it fell down to earth.

On that day, Albus' mum swore they would never have a new broom again until they could prove her they were ready to own one, as the Comet 360 had cost quite a bit of money for being a new model at the time. Albus was only glad that the broom hadn't been a Firebolt, or he and James would have likely been buried in the Weasley grandparents' garden along with Uncle George's ear, if his claims were true. It wasn't that they were poor, but Harry and Ginny had wanted their children to grow up as ordinary as possible, and ordinary to them meant "without using excessive amounts of their Gringotts vault to pay for racing brooms", so Albus had been made to use the Shooting Star. The Shooting Star was dreadfully slow and Albus was often outstripped on it by fledgling birds on their first flight while James would fly circles around him on the Nimbus, laughing himself silly until Grandma Weasley would throw a soapy dish sponge at him and threaten to throw the pan next.

"On the second Friday of term." Rose said airily. Rose wasn't a fan of Quidditch but had often been a good sport during meetings at the Burrow and would practice with Albus. Her broom was a Cleansweep Fifteen and therefore far nicer than the Shooting Star. The broom had been a gift from her father, back when he was under the impression he could lure her into Quidditch. When the time came to play a family game, Rose would opt out and lend a very grateful Albus her broom, so he didn't look like an idiot in front of the entire Weasley clan.

"So...the Friday coming up?" Scorpius asked hopefully, even though Albus was positive that Scorpius really knew yesterday hadn't counted.

"No, the Friday after." Rose said clearly. "Nice try, at any rate. We do have Flying lessons once a week though, taught by a Professor Tyson Thunderbirch, according to our class schedules. All I've heard about him is that he's…"

"Young?" Scorpius guessed, eyebrow cocking up in amusement when Rose nodded. "They all are younger than usual this year, aren't they? First the head and deputy head, and now some of the teachers as well. What are they doing, revolutionizing the campus?"

"Well, the older generation of teachers stayed here for quite a while after the Second Wizarding War ended. Naturally, a lot of them ended up retiring around the same time." Rose pointed out. "I bet the school's best bet for hiring ended up in the younger generation of witches and wizards. A lot of them _did_ prepare for the Second Wizarding War...some might even have firsthand experience. Naturally, that leaves a lot of great witches and wizards available for teaching posts."

"Well young or not, they'd better not be awful." Scorpius said. "Do you know anything about the teachers themselves, Rose? Wasn't there something in the pamphlet?"

"Only for the newest teachers that started last year. The flying teacher's one of them." Rose said, pulling her Hogwarts Welcoming Pamphlet out of her robe pocket and flipping it open. Albus and Scorpius followed her finger to a picture of a rather young-looking man with windswept and wild hair that looked even blacker than their school robes. He was laughing in his picture.

"He's only twenty-four?" Scorpius asked, reading some of the information provided on their new Flying instructor, who was to double as a Quidditch referee. "Not bad, but can he fly? My father flies and he'd be more than just dismayed if we got some git who doesn't know what he's doing up here."

"Considering he turned down genuine Quidditch team offers from the Chudley Cannons all the way to the Montrose Magpies...I'd say he knows what he's doing." Rose replied coolly. "I don't think our headmaster would be foolish enough to hire someone that doesn't know a thing about flying a broom."

"Oh no." Albus suddenly interjected, for he saw someone very familiar up ahead. Standing with the crisp Nimbus that Albus had seen so many times in the broom closet was James Sirius Potter, grinning at the moment as he whispered something to their caramel-skinned cousin Fred. Both were in full Gryffindor robes, the shortest in their little throng of red-robed players heading into the Pitch.

"Oh no indeed, Al." Scorpius snorted with disgust. "We can't visit the pitch while _Gryffindor_ is practicing there. It'll look like we've gone to support them. I'm not going to spent my first week touted as some kind of lion-hugger." The pale boy grabbed both Albus and Rose's arms and pulled them in the other direction. Albus made no resistance, as he had no idea how James would react. On the other hand, Rose was indignant about being dragged around and tugged back, but ended up following them so she wasn't left behind at the Quidditch Pitch. As far as Albus knew, she never had any interest in watching Quidditch, so watching James and the Gryffindor team practice was definitely not on her priority list.

After that uneventful turn, they headed to the Herbology Greenhouses nearby, but found them locked. Rose deduced that Neville was probably visiting his home over the Leaky Cauldron at the moment, so they headed towards Hagrid's hut instead. Scorpius was entirely excited at the prospect of meeting Hagrid, but didn't seem to know what to say or ask around Hagrid without coming off as rude or intrusive. He was curious about Hagrid's giant ancestry, but didn't want to impose on any

By the time they'd finally arrived at Hagrid's hut, Scorpius had agreed reluctantly to avoid asking Hagrid any questions about his heritage if he could help it, to avoid seeming rude. They trotted up to the front door and knocked three times. They were immediately greeted by a loud and rather booming bark, followed by the sounds of Hagrid shouting.

"Back, Fang!" Hagrid was shouting as the door finally opened. From what Albus could see, he was struggling to do so as he attempted to hold back an enormous black dog that made Scorpius and Rose leap back with its sudden appearance. Albus merely smiled and walked into the hut where Hagrid indicated, followed by Scorpius and Rose. Hagrid's Hut was just as cozy as his parents had always described. Albus had never visited it before, as Hagrid usually visited their house or the Burrow, but his mother and father had told him about their schoolday visits to the home.

It comprised of only one large room. The first thing Albus noticed was a new oaken table - courtesy of Uncle Ron - that had some comfortable armchairs placed around it, clearly made to fit Hagrid. There were some hams and pheasants hanging from the ceiling that Scorpius gazed up at with an awed expression, while Albus eyed a bed with a large patchwork quilt that Aunt Hermione had made Hagrid a few Christmases ago. It being daytime, there was no fire burning in Hagrid's cozy fireplace, but a shelf over it held some strange things on it, like what looked like remnants of a giant speckled egg.

The minute Hagrid shut the door and Albus and Scorpius sank into an armchair that was as broad as a sofa, Fang leaped in between the boys and began licking Albus' face. The great old boarhound was quite possibly the oldest dog Albus had ever known. Even though the dog had been quite young when Albus' father had been to school at Hogwarts, Fang should have been incredibly old. Yet the dog didn't even give any indication of age.

"Hagrid...how old is Fang?" Albus asked curiously as the dog moved on to Scorpius, who took the licking like a champ, only grimacing slightly. Hagrid turned from where he had gone to put the kettle on and smiled warmly.

"Well Alby, he's a great ol' boy. Going ter be thirty soon." Hagrid explained proudly as Fang leaped from their chair to where Rose sat. Rose rather enthusiastically moved to accept the dog's greetings; Albus knew Rose had always wanted a dog. Albus widened his eyes at Hagrid.

"Thirty? Hagrid, isn't that extremely old in dog years?" Albus asked as the half-giant began cooking. Hagrid merely chuckled.

"Didn't think he was no ordinary boarhound, didja?" Hagrid asked. "Nah, not Fang. He's one of the finest dogs ever bred by wizards. Dogs like him live longer than yer average Muggle hounds, y'know."

Hagrid spun around and placed four mugs on the table, three of them pink and one of them blue. Albus and Scorpius promptly wrestled each other for the blue one, but Albus lost. He took the pink mug reluctantly as Scorpius smugly took the blue, Rose rolling her eyes at both of them in exasperation. Hagrid then served them an incredibly refreshing cup of tea, as well as some treacle fudge that wasn't half bad, aside from how it complicated talking by gluing their jaws together when they chewed it too roughly.

They ended up staying in Hagrid's Hut for a while, as he started telling them stories about how Albus and Rose's fathers had gotten themselves deep in trouble searching for the Sorcerer's Stone in their first year. As they walked back up to the castle - out of Rose's earshot as she stopped to talk to Phoebe Richman - Albus and Scorpius even privately agreed that they'd like to have an adventure of their own. They were lost in thought as they sat down together at the Slytherin table for dinner, and again as they headed down to the lower Dungeons.

As they changed into their pajamas and headed to sleep, Albus began to think about just how much he appreciated being in Slytherin now. Even though he and Scorpius clearly had different backgrounds, there was something good about it. It made being Scorpius' friend even more interesting. At the same time, Albus could see why Scorpius hadn't made Slytherin immediately like Tom did; he had an adventurous sense in him.

As Albus peered out the window before bed, he thought about just how much he missed his family. Lily would be a real comfort to him, not caring if he was a Slytherin or not. He missed his father's sound advice and his mother's protection, but knew this was his first real step to independence. With that thought, Albus drifted to sleep.


	4. Ch 4: Reorientation

"Al! Hey Al!" a voice rang out through the dormitory on Monday morning. Albus sat up blinking, squinting through the morning light that poured out of their window. Scorpius was sitting on the edge of his bed, still clad in pajamas and looking perfectly bright-eyed. The Malfoy boy grinned when Albus stretched and returned the smile, albeit in a groggy sort of way. Albus couldn't help but notice Collin Elkins had already gone. Ricky was still fast asleep in his bed, but Tom was ruffling his sleep-tousled hair and blinking. Sōsuke was already in his robes, looking proudly at them.

"My father sent a letter with Akira." Sōsuke said to them, his eyes bright. Albus noticed a crisp letter clutched in the Japanese boy's hand. His dark brown eyes looked joyful as he waved the letter up to them. "He and my mother are proud of me. They don't know much about the house system, but when I told them what Slytherin is about, they were proud. I suppose a lot of my family sounds like they would be Slytherins."

"I still have no idea what _my_ parents think." Albus murmured back. His father and mother had said they'd be okay with Albus being a Slytherin, but that was back before it became a real situation. He remembered how his mum and dad had reacted when James owled home that he was a Gryffindor. They were so proud that Albus had seen Mum even wiping tears from her eyes. Would Albus' parents be looking at each other with shock as they realized their second son was a Slytherin?

"You'll be fine, mate." Tom said encouragingly from his bed. "I don't think your dad will be upset if you're in Slytherin. It's not like he expects the whole family in Gryffindor, now does he? I mean, who's a big enough git to hold their family to one house?" Perhaps it was just Albus, but Tom suddenly seemed quite uncomfortable all of a sudden and hurriedly began poking around his schoolbag.

Albus tore his mind from his Slytherin worries and changed into his robes. Once he and Scorpius were in their clothes, they immediately headed upstairs to the Great Hall. Scorpius began piling his plate high with food at once, and Albus noticed with pleasure that Jamison was sulking at the Gryffindor table as he stabbed at his eggs. He wasn't the only one. Collin Elkins mysteriously showed up later than everyone else with a glare fixed on his face before leaving after a few forced gulps of breakfast. Blank cards were being passed down the table and Albus looked quizzically up at Professor Lockett until he touched his card. Black lettering spread across it, revealing their first academic day's schedule:

_Monday_

_9:00-10:00 Transfiguration with Gryffindor_

_10:00-11:00 Morning Break_

_11:00-12:00 Charms with Ravenclaw_

_12:00-1:00 Lunch_

_1:00-1:15 Break to get to class_

_1:15-2:15 Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaw_

_2:15-2:30 Break_

_2:30-3:30 History of Magic with Gryffindor_

_7:00 Dinner_

"Great, Jamison and his friends in our first and last class." Scorpius groaned. "At least we don't have to worry about them _all _day. Besides, we've got a future dark lord on our side. Thanks a bunch, Tom Harries." Tom raised his wand and tapped his forehead with it, laughing. At the Gryffindor table, they saw Jamison eyeing Tom's wand across the Great Hall and twitching involuntarily in his seat. The others left one by one, but Albus and Scorpius waited as owls suddenly soared into the hall. A large eagle owl stopped by Scorpius to deliver some jelly slugs and a Sneakoscope and Scorpius found a note from his mum among the goodies. He seemed to be rereading it several times before tucking it away delicately in his pocket, as though he highly cherished it. A barn owl then swooped down and dropped a letter on Albus' head. He grasped the envelope and tore it open.

_ Dear Albus,_

_Your mum and I couldn't be any prouder of you! I always felt like you were too thoughtful and clever to be a Gryffindor, but it's wonderful to have a Slytherin in the family. It shows a lot to people who think lowly of Slytherin, having a wonderful wizard like you in it. Lily misses you loads, she kept asking me if you'd written since two hours after you got on the train. It's interesting to me that you've become friends with Scorpius, but don't get me wrong, your mum and I have no problem with it. Tell us how your classes are, we'll want to know. If you have any problems or if you feel a bit down, take a visit to Hagrid's. He's great at making others feel better._

_With love,  
__Dad._

The letter did cheer Albus up a great deal, but he and Scorpius stayed at the table a bit too long and ended up needing to run to Transfigurations. Only one of the front tables were left, but Albus and Scorpius complied agreeably and ignored Jamison's snickering. Jamison was at a table with Tyler Bosler. The curly-haired boy and his freckled friend were whispering under their breath, presumably about Albus and Scorpius because they kept glancing at them as they waited for the teacher, who had still not appeared. Scorpius looked half about to turn his wand on Jamison, his knuckles white as he gripped the side of the desk. Albus looked at the table behind them and saw Bem and Tom. Tom gestured towards Jamison and his friends and rolled his eyes as if to show how annoyed he was by them.

"Say Tom, where'd you learn that spell you used the other day?" Albus asked in a low whisper as they waited for the professor. Tom looked around as if to make sure no one was watching before he leaned in towards Albus.

"My er, mum taught it to me, actually." Tom whispered, seeming a bit skittish. "It almost got my father in terrible trouble because I used it against a colleague's older son that was bullying me around. Haven't done the spell since, but when I how Jamison was acting, it reminded me of that same kid."

The door suddenly flung open and a witch with long red hair styled in a plait walked in. She was wearing very practical robes and smiled warmly at the first years when she reached the front. Her eyes drifted on Albus for a moment.

"Hello first-years." she began. "I'm Professor Susan Bones and this is Transfiguration. You will want to pay attention in this class, for Transfiguration is a very complex branch of magic. But before we get into our lesson, would someone like to tell me what this is?"

Professor Bones held up a familiar-looking small coin attached to a chain that glinted in the sunlight from the open windows. Albus squinted at it and was surprised when Scorpius Malfoy's hand shot up in the air first.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

"That's the coin that members of Dumbledore's Army used to plan meetings and call each other." Scorpius said, looking solemn.

"Correct, Mr. Malfoy. That's five points to Slytherin." said Professor Bones with a smile as the Slytherins grinned to each other. "The numerals around the edge of the coin were used to show what date we would meet. All of the D.A. coins are stuck on one date - May 2, 1998. Does anyone in this room know why?"

One hand shot up, quicker than everyone else.

"That's the date the Battle of Hogwarts took place, and thereby also the day the Second Wizarding War ended." said a quiet voice from further back in the room. Collin Elkins was sitting at a table beside an interested-looking Hamlin Brutus. Perhaps the Australian boy looked so thrilled because he hadn't expected to be taught by a fighter from the Second Wizarding War; Albus certainly hadn't. It suddenly made sense to Albus why the coin was familiar. His father had one, as did his mother and several other adults he knew.

"Excellent, Mr. Elkins! Another five points for Slytherin! Now, back onto our subject." Professor Bones said as chatter broke out. It died once again quickly and Albus could tell she wouldn't have any trouble teaching. Nobody dared to disobey a fighter from the Second Wizarding War. "Transfiguration is incredibly complex and also dangerous, for this reason. If any of you fool around in my class, I will have no choice but to make sure you are punished appropriately."

Professor Bones turned the rolling chalkboard in the room into a small giraffe and this astonished all of them, but they learned that they wouldn't be learning how to do this until they were far more experienced and in their later years of schooling. For now, they just copied down the Transformation Formula in their notebooks. It wasn't exciting work, but Professor Bones told them they would definitely be doing a bit of spellwork in their next session with her, which put Albus in a better mood.

Albus followed his new friends in Slytherin as they bustled out of the Transfiguration classroom. He and Scorpius headed upstairs to the Charms classroom at once while the others lingered. The Charms classroom didn't have two-person desks like the Transfiguration classroom did, but long benches that stretched on either side of the room with tables. Much of the rest of the room was very neat and rather pink. Albus and Scorpius chose the row on their right and climbed all the way up to slide into the far side of the top row. Rose entered the classroom next, flushed and smiling. She made her way up to them and sat on Albus' other side, filling up their side of the row. Albus remembered - with a pleased jolt in his stomach - that they were taking Charms with Ravenclaw today. The other students drifted in one by one and found seats. Bran rather proudly sat on the other side of the row, accompanied by Ulric Dagforth. Albus noticed that Ulric was at least as small as Bran was, but pitifully thin and with thick brown hair. Bran waved jovially to Albus and smiled. Albus returned the gesture and watched with some amusement as Bran began pointing out a line in a book called _Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs_ by Hadrian Whittle. Ulric ducked down to view it as well as they waited for the others to enter while Scorpius snorted as he noticed the walls were exceedingly pink as well.

"I hate pink." Scorpius hissed. "Whenever my mother and father go out alone together, they leave me with Aunt Daphne and her house is just pink everywhere. I despise it. It's such an annoyingly bright color."

The teacher appeared from her office while everyone was seating themselves. She had shoulder-length blond hair that curled on the edges and wide eyes. Her robes were violently pink and Scorpius shot Albus a somewhat disdainful look that quite clearly told Albus what he already thought of her.

"Hello dears." the woman said softly, as though they were very small children. "I am Professor Delphine Maplecross and this is Charms. If you'll pull out your copies of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_, we can begin learning the theory of the Wand-Lighting Charm before practicing it later this week...hm, or maybe next week. It all depends!"

Risking a glance to his right, Albus could see that Scorpius looked positively disgusted. He threw his hand into the air at once, straightening up and looking dignified.

"Yes, Mister…?"

"Malfoy." Scorpius said quickly. "Why aren't we going to practice the Wand-Lighting Charm today? It's not a very difficult bit of spellwork…"

"Well, Mr. Malfoy." Professor Maplecross began. "I feel like the rest of the class would have a better time learning the theory behind the spell first. It wouldn't be fair of me to start right away, when there are Muggleborns among us."

"I'm Muggleborn, ma'am." Bran piped up at once, albeit rather shyly. "And I'm quite confident I know how to light the tip of my wand. It really is rudimentary magic."

"It's not like we're _Squibs_." Tom blurted out next, looking around as though daring someone to disagree with him. "We can light the tips of our wands, or we wouldn't be h-"

"A point from Slytherin _and_ Ravenclaw." Professor Maplecross said, her face going a horrid patchy-pink color. "I believe _I_ am the Professor in this classroom. Now as I said, we're going to go over theory first so that everyone has an equal opportunity to learn."

"It's like she thinks we're as dumb as trolls." Scorpius snorted with disgust to Albus as the room was reading the theory behind spellwork. Professor Maplecross didn't hear them as she read at her desk, for she insisted upon playing classical music while they read, the result being in Tom and Ricky snoozing in the row ahead of them.

"Or like we're toddlers." Albus muttered back under his breath. Albus had been very excited about actually getting to learn spells, not read theory on them. He and Scorpius were presently passing the time by playing Hangman on a piece of parchment. Rose shot them reproachful looks for a full five minutes before giving up and reading as much of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_ as she could possibly manage.

Albus was relieved when the time came for Maplecross to release them to lunch. He and Scorpius were some of the first out the door and the two boys trotted downstairs with Rose, Bran, Ulric, and Sōsuke while Bem stayed behind to wake Tom and Ricky up. They noticed that Collin Elkins had disappeared rather quickly, but brushed it off as they bolted into the Great Hall together to munch down on sandwiches (or in Scorpius' case, a nice shepherd's pie).

"That was unbelievably boring." Scorpius grumbled once Rose was out of earshot. "I could have skived off that entire lesson and been just as prepared as everyone else. What a waste of time, and did you hear what her homework was? She wants us to study the theory for homework too."

"In my ears, that's equivalent to _no_ homework." Albus murmured back. "We should just practice actually _doing_ the spell, since we clearly aren't going to be doing it in class. Might as well learn the Wand-Extinguishing Charm while we're at it, since we'll probably learn theory for that for a week, too."

Albus and Scorpius laughed their way through lunch, talking about their pitiful first Charms class. They both headed out for a stroll on the grounds before heading up to the third floor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which would hopefully be a much better lesson.

They were greeted with improvement almost immediately. Their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was waiting in the room, sitting at his desk and watching as his new students arrived. His hair was either black or very dark brown and it spiked up a bit in a tuft. He wore robes of a deep blue and had sharp eyes that were dark-colored.

"Stay standing." he said as students piled into the room. Shrugging, the students remained standing instead of moving to any of the desks. The man was looking around at them all carefully, as though judging how they were reacting to it all. He stopped in front of Albus.

"Mr. Potter, choose a partner, please." the man said. Albus instantly turned to Scorpius before the two of them stepped forward. Their professor walked to one of the front double-desks and tapped it.

"You'll sit here then. And let's get Ms. Nattingley and a partner of her choice in the desk beside yours. We're going to have Slytherins on the right side and Ravenclaws on the left. Keep an alternating pattern of boys and girls. Mr. Elkins...you take the desk in the back of the Slytherin row with Ms. Higgs, please. Mr. Belcourt and Ms. Mannes, you in the back desk of the Ravenclaw section."

Albus and Scorpius shrugged at one another and headed to the first desk in the Slytherin row, placing their bags down by the indicated desk. They looked around and noticed Sōsuke and Tom seated behind Julia Nattingley and Evelyn Alpert, while Bem and Ricky were in the desk two rows back. Their professor strode up to the front of the room and looked at them all with his sharp eyes.

"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts." the man said. "I am Professor Jay Steller, Head of Slytherin House. This is quite the informative course. We're going to be learning a lot of spellwork and I'm going to require my first years go to a Dueling Club unit. But believe me, this is a highly important course, not to be shirked on. I am doing my best to prepare you for the world out there."

"What do you mean, sir?" Georges Belcourt asked in a smooth French accent. Professor Steller nodded his head curtly and turned to face the Ravenclaw boy.

"There were wizarding wars not long ago." Professor Steller began. "Many of your parents were even involved in the Second Wizarding War in some way, either fighting or as fugitives during the intense persecution of Muggleborns. However, this school did not have the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher it needed to instruct the students on how to defend themselves from the enemies. Constant vigilance, as Mad-Eye Moody always said. Thank you for asking, Mr. Belcourt. A point to Ravenclaw for not being afraid to ask a question. I'd rather you lot ask me something stupid than risk you trying some stunt or making a wrong assumption."

Professor Steller paired them up and brought them to the space between the stairs leading to his office and their desks. The space here was wide and allowed for practice space. Professor Steller had them all out in partners, practicing the Knockback Jinx on one another. Half of the partners stood before protective mats while the others hit them with the spell, taking it in turns to practice the spell. Professor Steller looked pleasantly surprised by how many of them seemed familiar with the Knockback Jinx.

"Excellent!" he cried. "Perhaps not for your parents or siblings, but it is excellent for me. I suppose we can begin learning the Vermillious Charm next session. I will be setting up the Dueling Club courses, which will be ready for you all fairly soon. I have just secured a room on the ground floor we can use for sessions. Until then, do practice your spellwork and all the crucial elements in it."

Albus and Scorpius came from the lesson feeling extremely thrilled, even with the prospect of History of Magic with Gryffindor. Albus' father had often mentioned History of Magic as one of his least favorite classes, but Albus soon saw that a change in staff could drastically change things. They entered the classroom to find a witch with wavy black hair and emerald robes. She introduced herself as Professor Seraphym Brackenburne and she immediately launched into a discussion on the importance of wizarding history, so animated that everyone was watching her out of sheer captivation. Even Jamison had forgotten to be a perfect git to Albus and his friends as she explained some of the events they would be learning about this year.

Throughout the week, Albus visited his new classrooms. Charms remained completely and horribly boring, and much to their despair, they endured the class on every day save for Friday. Professor Maplecross had convinced herself that they were too young to know how to perform spellwork without tediously reviewing the theory behind the spells over and over again. Albus and Scorpius had taken to playing hangman and napping in her class, ignoring Rose's scowling face the whole way through.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was the best by far. Professor Steller was a strictly hands-on teacher who believed his students couldn't be expected to learn the spell unless they practiced it most of class. By the time Albus reached his last Defense Against the Dark Arts class for the week, they were casting perfect Knockback Jinxes and Vermillious spells. The highlight of the week was when Bem revealed how much theory they did in Charms. A disgusted look had crossed Professor Steller's face and he'd gone off on a tirade about how idiotic it was to stay strictly theory-based when young wizards were likely to disregard the information and grow bored. Albus and Scorpius had grinned during the entire Maplecross-bashing session and came out of class looking positively radiant.

Professor Brackenburne remained completely captivating as she started them off with the school's founders and their history. They only had her twice a week and only learned the in-depth background of Godric Gryffindor, but were set to learn about Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw in the sessions next week, meaning it was a full two weeks before they got to Salazar Slytherin and the actual school.

Midnight on Wednesday found the Slytherins heading up to the Astronomy Tower with Ravenclaw. Astronomy turned out to be one of the harder classes, thanks to the rather spartan Professor Zelda Pullman, who had no misgivings about assigning loads of homework. Albus and Scorpius were only thankful they had her just once a week. Albus was under the impression that Professor Pullman didn't like him very much, but was relieved when Tom Harries admitted he'd gotten the same vibe from her as she'd helped him fix his telescope.

Herbology turned out to be a class they could relax in every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Neville was an excellent teacher and started them off with learning Incendio so they could practice getting rid of the Spiky Bush from gardens and greenhouses. Albus and Scorpius were very pleased their first Thursday session with Gryffindor as they had rid their small patch of garden of the Spiky Bush while Jamison and Warren had started a fire that almost got out of control.

Through the week, they also learned more about their fellow Slytherins. The girls mostly kept to themselves still but they knew Tom Harries had a knack for spellcasting and was prone to betting and saying things exactly as they were. He was unafraid to complain or inquire to teachers. He was sly and a bit condescending, but well-meaning. Bem Olivier was as kind and lovely a person they could find, always smiling and making the most of things. Sōsuke was shy and quiet, but very intelligent and dedicated to things when he put his mind to them. He spoke a bit about Japan and told the others tales of his adventures in the country before he'd been accepted as a Hogwarts transfer. Collin Elkins remained the only mystery, always looking like he was brooding when he needed to eat or do lessons, but disappearing the moment any sort of free time began. He'd disappeared even during the heated discussions at the lunch table over flying.

It was later that day that they would be in Flying for the first time.

The downside of Quidditch was that the class was with Gryffindor. Albus thought rather enviously of Rose and Bran, who would be learning with Hufflepuff instead. He had no idea how good Jamison was at flying, but Jamison had only bragged about how he'd flown broom since toddlerhood. With nothing more to go by, he had confided his fears to Scorpius that the Gryffindors would do better and that he would look terrible next to them. Scorpius only sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Al." Scorpius had said. "They're nothing special on a broom. All bark and no bite, you'll see. I bet Jamison's flying is rubbish. Gryffindors don't seem to know when to stop running their mouths about things they think they can do, when the reality is that they can't. You'll see, we're better."

By the time Albus and Scorpius reached the field, Jamison had three Gryffindor girls tittering around him in a pack as he bragged about almost being hit by a Muggle airplane. Scorpius shot a look of pure disgust in the curly-haired boy's direction. Tyler Bosler was bragging and making up his own tales as well, but Warren Green and Bart Zuckerman just listened adoringly to Jamison as though his every word fueled them through the day.

"What a git." Tom spat, looking even more disgusted than Scorpius, if that was possible. Just then, Albus noticed what Jamison was saying.

"You see, I'll be the first excellent first year flyer since Harry Potter." Jamison bragged. "I mean, you've seen the older son at practice. He's absolute garbage. They'll can him quicker than tinned tomatoes. It's bad blood, the mother's a terrible flyer, you see. Absolute trash, like her children'll all be, I bet."

Albus suddenly became aware that Bem and Tom were holding him back while Hamlin Brutus and some of the Slytherin girls were stopping Scorpius from doing anything. Standing by himself though, looking determined...was Ricky McLaggen.

The one thing any Slytherin could suddenly appreciate about the so-far arrogant showoff that was Ricky McLaggen was that he did not like competing for attention. He loved nothing more than to be at the center of a group, telling some tale or another about his exploits, a very Gryffindor-like aspect of him. The Slytherins knew of course that this all had to do with his hidden ambition, which wanted recognition and greatness attached to his name. The minute Ricky saw Jamison among the girls and bragging about what a good flyer he was, his hands balled into fists in silent defiance. His jaw set; he scowled like he had been personally offended and he made right for the group, Albus and the other Slytherins silently urging him forward and trailing along behind him.

"Good flyer you say, Murphy?" Ricky asked in his smooth and condescending tones, a slight chiding bite to the way his words came out. "That's funny, considering I never heard _your_ name at the British Young Nationals Top One-Hundred Flyers Tourney, which _I_ made first place in, for your information. In fact, I heard your father was desperately trying to use his position at the Quidditch office to get you in, according to my father – Cormac McLaggen, you know. I'll know all about that, _Jamie_." Ricky spat the last word out with an even more disdainful bite as Jamison flushed with embarrassment and anger, while the girls around him scowled at Ricky. Bart stepped forward.

"What gives you the right to talk like that?" Bart grunted, hands balling into fists. His nostrils flared as though embarrassing Jimmy had done a great insult to him as well. Ricky merely looked at Bart's aggressive position and clicked like a disapproving mother.

"I'll be surprised if you can even scrape decent marks with that pitiful mind of yours. Cronies and lackeys aren't particularly known for _thinking_, mind you." Ricky responded back coolly. "You see, I can already name several reasons. One, I am an actual _gifted_ flyer and not just a baseless braggart. I've got medals and trophies at home to prove it. Two, I'm entitled to my opinion and allowed to voice my thoughts out loud, if I wish. Three, Jamison's flying skills are probably rubbish. Make the house team? That's a sorry joke. Murphy couldn't tell the right side of a broomstick, even if it had a manticore sitting on the other end."

There were collective gasps around, enough to where even a Muggleborn could tell what kind of a scathing insult that had been. Bart was frozen with a stupid look on his face and Warren and Tyler looked indignant, but Jamison had the best reaction. He looked as if Ricky had just struck him across the face and his face drained of color, then flooded with the tell-tale signs of anger. Ricky, however, looked perfectly unconcerned and was crossing his arms and puffing out his chest with obvious glee and pride.

"Wicked!" Scorpius exclaimed in an intentionally carrying way. Ricky puffed out even more, flushing with pride. It took only seconds for all of the Slytherins to surround him and pat him on the back, commending him for his refusal to let Jamison trash-talk the Potters. Jamison's clique and the Gryffindor girls surrounded him like wounded hens and moved away from the throng of Slytherins, but Hamlin Brutus, Ciaran Finnigan, and Ryan Thomas all stayed with the Slytherins and grinned. So far, they didn't seem to like Jamison or his crew and were glad to be rid of them and their bragging just as much as the Slytherins were.

"What a show." a voice suddenly said. The young and handsome teacher from the pamphlet was looking down them all with bright and curious eyes as they suddenly noticed him, hovering several feet over them on a broom. "We've got flying rivalries already setting themselves up. Great job, but I'll have you lot know we're just practicing today. You can't knock your classmates off their brooms until the next lesson, mind. Also, that's ten points from Gryffindor. You can't insult anyone's mother in this class, Jamison. Perhaps if you worked more on your Flying skills and less on bashing people, you'd manage a medal yourself."

Jamison flushed with shame, much to the joy of the Slytherins, who looked around at each other gleefully. Albus and Scorpius high-fived one another and grinned.

"Professor Thunderbirch here, by the way." the man said, pulling his broom low and landing expertly. He waved his wand and brooms lined up before them all. "Today we're going to start with the basic stuff. This class, of course, is going to be mostly hands-on, taught the way Flying should be taught. Now first, place your right hand over the broom in front of you and yell 'Up!' loudly and clearly. Go on."

"Up!" they all yelled at once, and Albus just barely caught his broom. He noticed Scorpius and Ricky's broom had jumped into their hands at once, while Jamison's face had gone an ugly color as he saw his broom was still laying in the grass, motionless. Sōsuke managed to get his broom after a few tries, but Tom and Bem still had difficulty. However, Hamlin Brutus was one of those few like Scorpius - his broom had followed his command in an instant.

"Not bad." Professor Thunderbirch said, reaching up to purposefully mess up his own hair. "It's all a matter of confidence, mind. If you're confident and comfortable on a broom, your broom is more likely to obey the up-command. If you're not...well, maybe this class will help you out a bit. Now, please mount your brooms."

The students all obeyed.

"Right then." Professor Thunderbirch said. "We're going to try several flight activities, some pertinent to Quidditch. The first test...follow me."

Professor Thunderbirch kicked off from the ground and began flying away. Scorpius was up in an instant, trailing the professor while Albus followed, jockeying for a position beside his best friend. He found Scorpius was right behind the professor, neck and neck with Hamlin and Ricky. For a moment as Albus scanned for his classmates, he realized Collin Elkins wasn't among them, but shrugged it off and tuned in to Thunderbirch. They flew around lazily, but the professor soon began to pick up the pace and intensity, taking the flying higher up. Albus suddenly noticed there were a small group of older students flying below them. He soon found out why. As they took a sharp turn, Warren squealed and slipped off of his broom. The small boy clawed at the air before falling with a scream. One of the older kids below caught him, putting him down on the ground gently and telling him to wait while his broom flew back to the other field of its own accord. Albus noticed that Tom Harries was gripping his broom for dear life, even though he and some of the others seemed to find the motions easy.

After a bit of flying around, Thunderbirch brought them to the field near the Quidditch Pitch and set them about into groups that were in rotation among several stations, each station focusing on an aspect of Quidditch. His assistants - Quidditch players themselves - manned each station while he walked around and admired their work. Thunderbirch put Albus and Scorpius into a group of seven with Hamlin, Bart, Else, Evelyn, and Winona. Their group was sent to the Beater's station first.

As Albus tried his hand at it, he realized he wasn't the best beater in the world and ended up ducking much of the time to avoid the practice bludger, which was designed to hit not quite as hard as the usual bludger, but enough to make one not want to be hit by it nonetheless. Scorpius did fair at it, though he missed hitting the target and instead ended up whacking the bludger so it almost hit Thunderbirch in the face.

"Way to go, Ham!" Ciaran yelled from another group. They saw Hamlin Brutus whacking bludgers like it had been his life's calling. The two of them watched the Australian for a few moments before giving each other a significant look. Albus didn't particularly wish to ever play against Hamlin, who was grinning by the end of the Beater session.

They went to the Chaser's section next, which actually took place inside the Quidditch Pitch. Albus soon learned that it was _his_ turn to find his calling. For Albus, the session was so laughably easy. He didn't know why, but there was something far easier in catching the practice quaffle than there was in playing Beater at the other station. It was lovely and so easy, especially when working with Scorpius to snatch the lighter practice quaffle from Bart. At the Keeper station though, not many of them had success. Hamlin Brutus had an advantage with his size when it came to keeping, but Albus and Scorpius both did fairly poor at it.

The Seeker station, on the other hand, produced some very interesting results.

Albus learned he rather liked seeking, but Scorpius enjoyed it just as much as he did. He found himself neck and neck with Scorpius most of the time, up until Scorpius caught the practice snitch first. Albus nudged Scorpius and pointed to Thunderbirch, who had been watching them and was now scrawling down notes.

As ominous as that might have been, Albus and Scorpius agreed with one another as they made their way back to the castle that they all generally outperformed Jamison's clique. Since class had ended, one of the three Gryffindor girls that had previously been fawning over him had moved on with one of the two Gryffindor girls who _hadn't_ been gaga over Jamison. Both of them could now be found flanking Hamlin Brutus, along with Winona Warner and Evelyn Alpert from Slytherin. Albus grinned as Jamison appeared, angrily kicking a clump of sod as he walked away.

On Friday they sat their very first Potions class, and it was even a double session to make up for only having it once a week.

"I am Professor Kirkborne." their new Potions professor had announced. "Do not expect me to share my first name with you, as you are not to be calling me by it anyway. I will have you all know that this class is not for those who behave foolishly, or act in such a way that our last headmaster would consider you a blithering idiot, in her words. Do not cross me. Pay closest attention. We will be starting with a simple twenty-five question beginner's quiz. I expect absolute silence."

Albus and Scorpius exchanged looks as they started in on the quiz, which had obviously indicated they should have studied their schoolbooks better. Albus felt quite lost as he looked at the questions. He hadn't opened his book at all since he'd gotten it. He had been so busy with other things that he had clearly forgotten. Professor Kirkborne scowled when he'd corrected all of them.

"That was a _pitiful_ class average." he scoffed. "Clearly, most of you thought you could just waltz in here and expect I'd cut you slack for slacking off. Open your copy of _Magical Drafts and Potions_ and read the introductory chapter immediately." That was all they managed to do in that class, but Albus was at least glad he wasn't the only one who had scored badly.

Quidditch tryouts drew nearer and nearer. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, they were learning _Verdimillious,_ while Astronomy had them completing a simple quiz on the solar system. As Albus headed down to the field for the next week's session, Albus realized happily that Professor Thunderbirch would be announcing the four flying proficiency groups and which seven students had made it into each. Albus kept his fingers crossed that he had made it in the second tier - for good flyers - at the very list. He already knew Scorpius would be making it in the top tier; he was definitely considered an advanced flyer.

"Alright, settle down." Professor Thunderbirch said as the lesson began. "Now, as I said, if you have made it into at least the top tier, you will be allowed to try out for your house's Quidditch team. I'm going to read the names of the seven students who proved to be the top in this class. If I read your name, please stand over here in a line, so I can dismiss you to your heads of house. They need to sign a waiver for you to try out. It's a rule in place to prevent struggling students from signing up for more than they can chew in their first year. Keep in mind, if you've had a bad attitude with your head, chances are that you're not going to get their permission."

Scorpius nudged Albus, a grin on his face. Albus smiled back nervously. What if he didn't make it in? He had given it his all during the flying tests they had done, but what if he wasn't good enough to be in the top seven? How would he live it down if Jamison made it and he didn't?

"Firstly, the top flyer in our class, who has shown exemplary skills on a broom in many or most aspects of flight...Scorpius Malfoy!" Thunderbirch cried. The Slytherins all beamed with pride as a shy-looking Scorpius shook hands with Thunderbirch.

"Next...Collin Elkins." Thunderbirch recited. As Albus turned to look at Collin, he watched as the boy's scowl became a full and confident smirk. Collin walked over to where Scorpius waited. Scorpius didn't look too happy with the arrangements and looked questioningly at Albus. Albus wasn't the third best flyer...that was Hamlin Brutus. He wasn't the fourth or fifth either, who turned out to be Ricky McLaggen and Amber Helton. He was growing worried. The sixth could easily be Jamison…

It wasn't Jamison, in fact, but his friend Tyler. Tyler Bosler was extremely haughty as he walked over to join the others too, shooting a gloating look at Albus as though to say, _I made it and you didn't._

"Finally, our last advanced flyer...Albus Potter." Thunderbirch said, and Albus flooded with so much relief that he nearly fell over. He would not be watching his friends play after all, if things worked out in his favor. Albus shakily went to join Scorpius as the other Slytherins cheered, satisfied by how many of their number had succeeded.

"Alright, Slytherins." Thunderbirch began. "You lot are to go to Professor Steller for permission, as he is your head of house. Gryffindors, you are to find Maplecross. There's no need to come back. If you are chosen at tomorrow's tryouts, you will be exempt from this class.

"Oh no." Scorpius whispered as the two Gryffindors began striding away. "They have _Maplecross_ as a head of house? She's going to give them permission for sure. I don't mind that Brutus kid making it on the Gryffindor team, but Bosler is a downright berk. He doesn't deserve to lick the broom handles clean."

"Well at least we're going to get permission." Albus pointed out as they walked down the hall behind the procession, led by Ricky. "Steller favours us. There's not a chance he would tell any of his Slytherins they couldn't play for the house unless they were real gits."

Sure enough, when they entered Professor Steller's classroom, they found him waiting with a quill. Amber beat them all there and flounced off with her waiver first.

"Ah, McLaggen." Steller acknowledged jovially as he saw Ricky at his desk first. "So glad to have a McLaggen signing up for the Quidditch team. You are thinking about signing up, aren't you?"

"I actually don't know, sir." Ricky said. "I would like to sign up for Keeper, but the current one is well-liked - Peter Elphrick, you know - and I don't think I'll make the team while he's here."

"Well you could always be a secondary until then." Steller pointed out, signing the waiver. "They are looking for a new one ever since Evan Bole quit after taking a bludger to the chin. He still doesn't chew quite right after that, poor chap. There you go. Next?"

Scorpius nudged Al forward.

"Ah, Potter." Steller murmured, sounding pleased. "It's always good to have a Potter on the team as well. We've lost our seeker, Richendorff, and two of our chasers, Ivanoff and Lewis. Thinking about replacing one of them?"

"Er, I suppose." Albus stammered nervously. He half wanted to try out for Seeker, but was conflicted. Scorpius obviously wanted to be the Seeker, and Albus certainly didn't want to compete against his best friend. He would rather try out for Chaser now, especially because he had done so well at it during class.

"Very well, here you are. Malfoy next!" Steller cried as Scorpius clapped Albus on the shoulder as he walked by. Albus sat in a desk to wait for Scorpius, whom Steller seemed very pleased about. Scorpius came over grinning and brandishing his permission slip as Collin Elkins moved to get his signed. The two of them were almost out of the classroom when they stopped just outside of the door.

"Collin, you know I can't let you play." Steller said in a strangely apprehensive-sounding voice that half scared Albus. "Remember what we agreed upon before you came here? That we have special circumstances set up to protect you. It would be mad of me to let you play something dangerous like Quidditch. How about you join the Gobstones team instead?"

"Sir, please!" Collin begged. "I don't want to play Gobstones, it's a boring game anyhow. Please let me play Quidditch. I'll be careful...I'll...I'll wear extra padding or play with a shield charm or-"

"Collin, you know we can't make exceptions for one player that give them more protection than another." Professor Steller explained. "You just can't play for Slytherin. Not at such a time where your safety might be jeopardized…"

Albus couldn't bear to listen to it, even if Collin had been rather standoffish. It sounded horribly unfair to him that Collin should be held from practice when he truly wanted to play _and_ was a good flyer.

"Sir!" Albus exclaimed boldly, taking a few steps back into the classroom. "I think you should let Collin play. He's made the second best flier in our class. Why can't he?" Steller and Collin both looked surprised, even more so when Scorpius walked back into view with Albus, albeit reluctantly. Collin's face flooded with red and the boy stomped over to Albus.

"I didn't ask for _your_ help, Potter!" Collin snarled, face completely flooded with anger and frustration. "I don't depend on others to help me like your father did. I can handle everything on my own, so stay out of it!" Collin stomped away then, before either of them could retaliate, slamming the door in his wake.

"Merlin's beard, what was that for?" Scorpius asked, both surprised and disgusted with how Collin had reacted. "He might have at least be grateful you stuck up for him, but he had to go and have a tantrum instead, didn't he?"

"Albus, you're a nice boy. I can see that." Professor Steller explained calmly as he looked resigned for some reason. "Your intentions were good, I understand that. But there are certain reasons why Collin can't play Quidditch this year. It's too risky."

"Why does he have special circumstances, sir?" Albus asked. "What danger is he in?"

"I didn't say he was in danger." Professor Steller said quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly. "And I can't tell you what the circumstances are, exactly. But can you two boys do me a favor, since you're in his house? Can you keep an eye on him for me and let me know if anything strange happens around him...or if you see someone suspicious near him?"

"Er...yeah, sir. We can do that. Have a nice day." Albus replied hurriedly. Scorpius opened his mouth to protest, but Albus tugged him out of the room. Scorpius was naturally quite indignant as they stopped in an abandoned hall two floors down.

"What did you go and accept for?" Scorpius asked. "The little berk just insulted your father. Now we're going to watch over him like we're his nannies?"

"Do you want to find out why he has special protection, or not?" Albus sighed. "I only accepted so we could find out more for ourselves. Maybe if we spend more time around him, we can work out for ourselves what's going on here. To my knowledge, no one's ever been denied from playing Quidditch for their own protection."

Scorpius paused for a moment, looking pleased.

"...Not bad, Al." Scorpius remarked with a smirk. "You really do have the makings of a Slytherin. You accepted to benefit yourself, to find out more. I like that. So, we have a start."

"At least." Albus replied as they strode downstairs. "We know someone's gotta be after him if we're watching for suspicious characters. Maybe Steller thinks this person would have a go at him during Quidditch activities."

"During an actual match seems a bit far-fetched." Scorpius remarked. "Almost the entire school shows for a match. If they were going to go for him on the field, he would have to be somewhere more secluded…like the changing rooms. The only problem is that other players would notice."

"Practice, maybe?" Albus asked. "Players all show up at different times during practice. If he didn't show for practice, no one would make a big deal of it right at the time. They'd think he was just skipping. We've got to ask Rose. She might have an idea."

Rose had more than just an idea. She had another theory completely, formed the moment Albus had filled her in to the situation.

"You two sound like you think this is a kidnapping. What if they want to _attack_ Collin?" she asked. Albus and Scorpius exchanged skeptical looks and Rose rolled her eyes at both of them. "It's not impossible to attack someone while they're playing Quidditch. You of all people should know this, Albus. Your dad was attacked three times during Quidditch, if you've read the Quidditch matches as documented by Lee Jordan, who was the commentator."

"He _was_?" Albus asked, shocked. Scorpius seemed to have caught on to something.

"Right, how could I forget?" Scorpius asked. "In his first year, when Voldemort tried to jinx his broom, disguised as a teacher. Then in second year with the rogue bludger. But wait...what was the third time?"

"A dementor-related attack." Rose replied smartly. "And it was just as effective as the physical attempts, in a sense. He fell off of his broom and would have died from the fall if the headmaster at the time - Albus' namesake - hadn't done something about it."

"So you think someone might have tried jinxing his broom?" Scorpius asked, bewildered. "Or called a bludger on him? That's pretty wild stuff. It would have to be someone that knows their dark magic to break in to where the balls are kept to sabotage the bludgers. But at the same time, that's a good point, Rose."

"We really don't have any idea if that's the case though." Rose pointed out once more. "At the same time, what if he has some kind of delicate medical condition we don't know about? Even Muggles kill each other just by punching, it's rare, but it does happen. I read it in a medical book of Mum's. The danger might be that they're protecting him from hurting himself by going out there and playing and the stranger Steller wants you to watch out for is someone who might kidnap him for ransom, using his frailty as an even stronger tool in the case. We can't just go by speculation. We need more information."

"Scorpius and I are going to see if we can follow him a bit, but he might catch on." Albus pointed out. "So if he catches us, can you try? He doesn't know you're with us, he'll think you're just another Ravenclaw."

"I'll do my best, Al." Rose replied. "It sounds like it'll be my shift tomorrow at five then, correct?"

"Right." Scorpius replied quickly. "Al and I've got Quidditch Practice, and odds are that they're not going to let him on the field. Not saying that's going to stop him from trying though. He didn't sound too chuffed about not being able to go."

"Fair point." Rose replied swiftly. "In which case, I'll say I'm there watching Ricky McLaggen play. A fair few of the girls in our year seem to fancy him already, especially since he told Jamison off, I heard. No doubt there will be a little gaggle of fangirls there, I already know Violet Mannes is going just to gawk at him. I'll just pretend I'm in with them if he shows. I can follow him with another girl from Ravenclaw to give it a realistic impression."

"Excellent!" Albus replied. "We'll need as much help as we can get. He might already think Scorpius and I are interfering about what happened earlier."

Albus and Scorpius discussed all the way from dinner to the Common Room in hushed voices, making sure they were alone the whole time as they headed down to the dungeons. In the end, they decided to fill Tom in. Tom was in the dormitories and had no beef with Collin, which was crucial if they were to keep an eye on him. They waited until he was alone and heading down to the dungeons when they caught him and pulled him away from the entrance to Slytherin, shushing him as he tried to cry out.

"Oh, it's just you two!" Tom cried, bewildered. "What is it? Is something going on?"

"We need your help." Scorpius said. "Your father wanted you to get in with me, right? Well, there's something weird going on with that Collin kid in our house. Steller wouldn't let him play Quidditch and Al and I might think someone's after him based on what he's said. Can you help us keep an eye on him?"

"Of course." Tom replied almost at once, eyes shining. They dimmed a little bit as he seemed to remember something. "Wait...we won't have to get in trouble, will we?"

"No, we just need someone to help us keep our eyes on him." Albus replied. "Scorpius and I will be doing Quidditch some of the time, so we won't be able to. You'll help us, won't you?"

"...Of...of course." Tom stammered, straightening himself up. "I'll do whatever I can to help, just don't ask me to get on a broom." The three of them strode to the dormitory. Collin was sitting in one of the armchairs, reading. He scowled at them as they walked in, but Scorpius and Albus passed him and headed into the common room, which was empty at the moment.

"Say Scorpius?" Albus asked. Scorpius sat on his bed and scratched behind Loki's ear, looking up at Albus. "Why is it that you don't like Gryffindors?"

"Well...Al." Scorpius began, a bit nervously. "You know how things were after the Second Wizarding War...for those of us that had Death Eaters in the family. A fair few of the old Gryffindor families pointed a few fingers at some of us, I think that Tyler Bosler kid's family was one of the big ones. Started typecasting us, really. Right after the war, father couldn't go out and about a lot. He and Mum couldn't even get married publicly at first, they sort of had a secret wedding. I'd be facing scrutiny here at school right now if it wasn't for your dad...well, at least a bit."

"Why?" Albus asked, a touch surprised. "What did _my_ dad possibly do to fix that?"

"You shouldn't be so surprised, Al." Scorpius said, giving him a weak smile. "Your dad can do a lot of things. At any rate, he vouched for my family. He'd told everyone that my grandmother had saved his life and pointed out that we switched to your side in the end. Told everyone to give us another chance. If it weren't for him, I'd only have a few people willing to be around me, like Tom. His granddad was good friends with mine even if he wasn't a Death Eater, so that's probably why Tom's been pressured to keep up the chain. A lot of us old pureblood families stick together, after all. We're all we've got in a day and age like this."

"You're wrong." Albus pointed out quietly. "You've always got Rose and I's support, and I'm sure Bran would vouch for you guys as well. Just because someone you're related to did something, doesn't mean you will. I mean...look at my dad. I'll never be a hero like him, and look at James. James gets in a bit of trouble sometimes, but he does well and is a great Quidditch player. I don't even think I'll make the team."

"Rubbish." Scorpius snorted. "You've got it in your blood. My dad told me your dad was the toughest seeker he ever faced off against...and...and Mum always tells me to keep my confidence up no matter what, so you've got to. You're going to make the team Al, I know it."

"Thanks, Scorps." Al replied. "I guess it is a good thing I'm not in Gryffindor then, or everyone would be expecting me to be at least as good as James is. You know...because they all know him and would think that I'm at least half as good as he is."

"Your brother's not bad for a Gryffindor, you know." Scorpius mused. "He's no Jamison, at least. But don't think I'm going to start getting chummy with lions because your family's a pride of them. When Gryffindor plays any other team, we're not going to start cheering for them to win, you know. Especially not if Bosler makes the team."

"Definitely not." Albus replied back animatedly. "The last thing I need after challenging James is him thinking I want them to win. We've got to do whatever we can to take both the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup this year."

Albus and Scorpius laughed for a moment before heading upstairs quickly. They had some time left before curfew and Scorpius had wanted to write back to his mother, whom Albus noticed he was very close to when he saw Scorpius' insistence on replying.

"Father's on business a lot." Scorpius explained as he handed a school owl his reply. "I don't want mother to be lonely, you see. Before, she and I would keep each other company the whole time. I mean, she has gran for company, but it's not the same as having a son there, you know. And er...I sort of miss her."

"I understand." Albus replied. "Truth be told, I really miss my little sister. Sure, I'd have to play dollies with her or help her brush her toy unicorn's hair or something like that, but she was really comforting to have around."

It was a testament to their friendship that Scorpius didn't laugh at Albus at all. He merely told Albus that he understood and the two of them ended up having to rush downstairs and avoid two prefects to make it back into the dormitory. They didn't go to sleep until Collin had entered the dormitory, followed by Tom, who winked at them. Scorpius waited until the others were all asleep before turning to Albus as they lay in bed.

"He's getting a bit bold, that one." Scorpius whispered. "One of my friends...Nott, he's at Durmstrang...well, he knew Tom as kids and told me he was all about listening to his dad. Wasn't any fun at all back then, I reckon, because that's all he did. His dad wouldn't approve of all this, I think. Getting involved when he didn't need to, you know."

"Well, it's not like this has been a normal old school year, has it?" Albus whispered back. "Me and Rose ending up anywhere but Gryffindor, a McLaggen in Slytherin, all the stuff with Collin."

"Fair point." Scorpius admitted and the two of them rolled onto their backs and lay in bed, thinking about Quidditch practice the next day before they fell fast asleep.


End file.
